One Of Those Days
by Dying-Revenge
Summary: Axel Baron is a man of few words, and even fewer interactions. Wasting away with dating websites, Axel caught the attention of Kyu, the world's favorite Love Fairy. But Kyu underestimated Axel's social awkwardness, almost leading him to suicide. But after Kyu realizes someone in the world needs Axel, they ban together to find him love. But love might be closer than they thought.
1. Chapter 1

Have you ever had one of those days, when you can't lift your face out of your palms? You sit there, elbows on the tables, and a blank computer screen. If you haven't, let me tell you what that feels likes. It's a moment of pure loss. You spend your time yelling at yourself, whether it be in your head or out loud. You insult yourself, put yourself down because you make yourself feel worthless. At that moment, you can just tell your life won't advance. There you will be, at that desk the rest of your life. The words are in your head, but you can never put them on paper. You might as well die and wilt away, since you won't make a difference in anybody's life.  
That's what that feels like.

I can't tell you how many hours every night I spent feeling like that. I would sit there at the computer, not knowing what to do. For others, it could have been a school essay. For some, it could have been their next article. But considering the tense I was just using, you probably guessed I wasn't one of those. Instead of writing something kind of important, I was trying to decide what to put as my profile description.

What I wanted to do was write the most intriguing introduction I could in under five hundred characters. Because I wanted the right person to see that introduction, because the right person was the girl of my dreams. She would see my profile pic and think I was cute. No, 'Handsome'. She would see my details, and get excited. Hopefully at that point, she wouldn't care to read my introduction. But just in case she were to, she would just die to meet me. That's why I was so frustrated, I couldn't get them right. Should I lie, should I exaggerate, etc. I needed help, and I needed it bad.

To a lonely man, love is the same thing as money. You gotta have it, or else your life will just go down the shitter. I had the job, I had the car, and I had the education. I even had my own independent life. But unfortunately that was way too independent. Cute girls would just pass me by every day, and I wouldn't say a word. If I had to interact with one due to work, I would interact with her normally, than fantasize some story about her the rest of that day. It was that bad. So I took to dating sites, and that was a shit show. I would stress about just making the profile good, but then delete it right after. Even though dating sites exist for that same reason, I was nervous being on a dating site made me look pathetic. My self-esteem was as sensitive as a cavity.

And so, for the thirty second time, I threw in the towel. I would just stop trying, and for some reason a successful relationship would just punch me square in the face. Well, to my complete utter surprise, it did. But instead of the face, it punched me in the back of the head.


	2. Chapter 2

In quite a rare occurrence, I fell asleep at my desk. But as soon the burst of dark happened, it ended. With one hell of a thud mind you. Something hit me in the back of the head, bouncing my keyboard at the same time.

"Fuck!" I panicked and starting looking around for what fell on me. I don't know why, considering there wasn't anything on the walls or shelves to possibly fall. I didn't even have shelves, so my assumption was even stupider. But nothing was on the floor, and everything was intact. But it was weird because it couldn't have been one of those weird jolts you get when you sleep because god damn my head hurt. But with no obvious explanation, I just didn't bother worrying about it anymore.

"Wow, nice peripheral vision you got there." Hold on, I didn't say that. And I don't sound like a woman…

"That was your que to turn around." Well, whatever you say, voice in my head. I turned around, anxious to see what was talking to me. And lo and behold, was a girl. I took a moment to observe her, before I screamed.

"Fuck are you?! Get out!" Despite how non-hazardous this girl seemed, all I know is she was an intruder. Since I could defend myself as a well as newly born turtle, I thought my frantic swear words and loud voice would scare her away.

"Um, I'm not some mountain lion boy. Yell at me all you want, I'm not going anywhere." I was ready to ask a lot of questions, but she gestured to me with her hand.

"Look, I'll give you the rundown. No, I am not gonna hurt you. No, I did not break in. No, I am not a dream, an illusion, or a ghost. No, you are not drunk or high. No, this is not some TV show or prank. I am one hundred percent real, and have nothing but good intentions. Now sit down boy." She must have done this a million times before, because she answered every question I had before I even knew I wanted to ask them.

I sat down on my chair, rubbing the back of my head. I saw her looking around the room, analyzing it like it was a crime scene. I could hear her calmly humming to herself.

"So, I guess the one question I still have for you is who exactly are you?" She quickly looked at me, almost like she forgot I was here. With a grin, she told me

"The name is Kyu. Kee-Yuu. And I'm your love fairy!" Wow. 'Love Fairy'. I don't drink, but I'm really starting to doubt I'm not drunk at this point.

"Love fairy? But I thought-"

"Don't question it. Things will go a lot more smoothly for you if you don't." She grabbed a chair, and sat in front of me.

"As a love fairy, my job is to find you exactly that. I'm gonna get you a girlfriend buddy. From what I have read up on, this should be easy enough."

"If it was so easy, why are you here?" She crossed her arms, and then crossed one knee over the other.

"Do you not want my help? Mister 'seventeen different dating profiles deleted'?"

"Wait, how did you know that?"

"Key word is fairy buddy boy. We have powers." She pulled out a clipboard from…somewhere…and threw on a pair of glasses that didn't even have lenses.

"Let's see, Axel Baron. Can't believe with a name like Axel you are having trouble." She started skimming through papers on the clipboard.

"Good job, good education…..do do dooo….ah! Another case of nervous wreck, we can fix that easy." She ripped out a paper, and grabbed a pencil.

"So, what kind of girl are you looking for?"

"Well, uh, I don't know. I guess a girl with similar interests."

"Well what are your interests?"

"Well I love listening to music and watching movies. So someone who likes those things would be cool." She pushed down her pair of glasses to give me a disappointed look worse than a fathers.

"Everybody likes music and movies dimwit. On to the next question. What does the perfect girl look like to you?"

"Umm, I guess as long as she takes care of herself and doesn't seem boring." This time she pinched her nose and sighed.

"This is going horrible already. God, I need answers Axel! Now how about this one, this should be easy. What is your biggest turn off?"

"Oh, um…." She then threw the clipboard at me.

"Failed. You failed." After checking to see if my nose was bleeding, I yelled back at her.

"Failed what? It was a questionnaire! You can't fail a questionnaire, and why do you keep hurting me?"

"You and your questions, I should just sow your mouth shut. Now come on, clean yourself up, we are going out."


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't even know where we are going Kyu." She was shoving me into my car, frantically telling me to hurry up.

"Girls won't come to you, so you gotta go to the girls." I started up the car while she got in the passenger seat.

"What's the most popular bar in town?" I thought about my answer carefully, because I didn't know what she would throw at me.

"I don't drink much so…" and in comes a balled up piece of paper.

"Look, how am I supposed to know this shit?!" She chuckled, like I was some dog she pretended to throw the ball to.

"It was a trick question, no one is out drinking at a bar at twelve thirty in the afternoon. That's why you only gotta a paper ball." She opened up her…fairy phone?

"What are you looking up?" She started scrolling through her phone at a rapid pace. Almost like she was barely even reading what was on the screen.

"Popping places in this town. Since obviously you wouldn't know of any." I shrugged my shoulders and agreed. She stopped scrolling, and then asked me

"Well you hungry?"

She had me drive to a hometown panini joint. On the way there she told me fast food places are never good because it shows 'weakness of the wallet.' I asked her why paninis and she told me she wanted to find out two things.

"What two things?"

"Your opinion on giiiiiirls. With a 'z' at the end. Plus, if their chicken salad is as good as this review says it is."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Umm….I really like a good chicken salad? Duh?"

"No, no, the 'girls' thing. What's a giiirl with a z?"

"Oh, right, right."

She pulled out a chart from…somewhere (again)….and it pictured a highly detailed stick figure. One of those details being a tic-tac-toe game in the corner in which X barely won.

"A giiirl is the default. Yoga pants, key chain lanyard, iced coffee, nine times out of ten hair in a bun, and drives either a Honda or a Nissan. You know. A giiiiiiiirl." Now that she mentioned it, I realized one of my biggest turn-offs.

"Oh, like the ones whose personalities they borrowed from a magazine?" Kyu gestured me a high-five.

"Hey, you got it! And you even have a sense of humor. Albeit a very spiteful one…but humor nonetheless." I slapped her hand, and she put away thechart…..somewhere (I hope it isn't a different somewhere because I can barely keep track at this point).

"Well I can already tell you aren't for giiiiirls so that's a huge check off the list. But I still want a sandwich so we will talk inside."

We got out of the car, and started walking towards the store. But after I heard her door slam, I had a sudden thought.

"So, uh….Kyu?"

"What's up?"

"Can other people see you?"

"Hmmmm…..I had a phrase for this…..crap, it was clever too….." I saw her bite her thumb, struggling to remember. Meanwhile I saw people passing us by, and I couldn't help but get paranoid they thought I was waiting for a reply from either the air or a pink Peter Pan character.

"Damn, I can't remember. But nonetheless, only if I want them to."

"So people can only see you if you want them to?"

"Yup. Pretty cool huh?" She put her hand next to her mouth, gesturing what she was about to say was a secret.

"Works great for peeping, I'll tell you what."

"That's…..well besides the point. So how do you keep track of everyone you want to see and not see you?"

"It's not that I keep track of them, I just…uh…." I can see her yet again struggle for an answer.

"Fuck you and your questions Axe, jeez. Instead of arguing in the parking lot, I want food!" She slapped my shoulder, hard, and we got walking again.

"Oh, by the way, you are gonna have to order for me."

"That shouldn't be a problem."

"I wouldn't say that mister…"


	4. Chapter 4

We got into the store, and the smell of garlic bread and cheese filled the air. That and I think some cinnamon. And right off the bat, I could see what Kyu meant by 'Giiiiiiirls'. Every girl in the store looked exactly the same besides some facial features and hair color. I was way more excited for the sandwich than interacting with any of these dolls.  
"So Axel, see something out of the ordinary?" She elbowed me lightly.

"Um, not really. You were a hundred percent correct on the girls things, so I don't know what could be off about this place." She then decided to grab my chin and point me in the direction of the waiting line, where the girls are are..well uh…waiting. Then, she dragged my chin all the way around the store at the dining tables, where I saw multiple men dawdling through on their cell phones.

"That's what weird."

"Umm..all the guys are on their phones?"

"No, the guys in general. Why do you think they are sitting at the tables?" Again, I was frightened to get something else tossed at me. But I figured this question wasn't meant for me to answer since I was the one who needed help in the first place.

"I honestly don't know." I backed away from her grip and prepared for impact. But to my surprise, she just chuckled.

"It's because they don't want to be here. Every girl here dragged their boyfriend to lunch and they are nothing but miserable."

"Is the food that bad?"

"It has nothing to do with the food Axel, it has to do with what we like to call 'Pussywhipped'." She said it nice and slow, almost like it was a new concept.

"I know what that means, but I think you're exaggerating. Just because a guy let his girlfriend decide lunch I don't think that means he doesn't wear the pants." She patted me on the head.

"Axel, Axel, Axel. Poor little delusional Axel." I swatted away her hand, I didn't feel like getting publicly humiliated…by someone who wasn't there.

"They are only miserable because this isn't the first time it happened. This is probably their fourth panini in a month. One every now and then is fine, paninis are delicious."

"So what's the point Kyu?"

"Simple. Observe the behavior. You are the safari guy, they are the lionesses. Sometime a giiirl can be hiding out of nowhere. When we get close, listen very closely on vocabulary and body language. I'm right behind you."

She hid behind my back, pushing me every step of the way. We waited behind two giiiiirls, and I did what was I was told.

"So, like, um, what gym do you go to?"

"The one over there, on that street whatever it is. This is my membership card."

"Oh yeah, Stacy went there once with her boyfriend. She said it was good, but she didn't like it." Wow. I was standing behind two walking stereotypes.

"Told ya." I heard Kyu whisper. The girls ordered the food and went to sit down. I got up to the counter and was greeted by the cashier.

"Welcome, how can I help you?"

"Um, I'll have a roast beef and cheese panini and a…uhhh." I completely forgot what Kyu wanted.

"Need another moment sir?" I started to panic.

"Yes, uh, you can just take whoever is behind me first." I heard Kyu slap her forehead.

"There…is no one behind you sir." I started screaming in my head 'Yes there is! An obnoxious sugarplum pixie!' I did my best to whisper to Kyu without seeming like more of a psycho.

"What do you want Kyu?"

"Excuse me sir, are you on the phone?" Kyu was pointing and doing weird hand signs, but I couldn't tell at all what any of them meant.

"Sir?"

"Kyu!"

"Sir, who are you talking to?" Without any help from Kyu, I remembered her order. I swung around and practically yelled

"Chicken Salad!"

And another facepalm from Kyu, except this one sounded like it hurt. She came out from behind and pulled my arm.

"Sir, do you not want your food?" Kyu then mumbled to me

"Nope, we are leaving." I felt terrible, but didn't want to leave abruptly.

"Yeah, sorry, she wants to go." The cashier squinted her eyes, almost like she struggled seeing the walking cotton candy.

"W-Who?" She..couldn't see Kyu? I just waved my hand and was practically thrown out of the store. For someone with skinny arms and no extra muscle mass, Kyu had one hell of a grip.

"What the hell was that Kyu? If she couldn't see you, why did you bother hiding? Why did you make me look like a looney in there? I thought you were supposed to help me!?" This time came a handful of pebbles. One of them went up my nose.

"Boy, do not sass me. That was pitiful what happened in there." Man, did I wanna cuss at her. But I couldn't because I was still struggling to blow out the pebble.

"This was your chance to simply talk to a girl, and instead you blew it. You didn't even ask her how she was doing, or nothing. You just wanted to order your food and go, and that is pathetic."  
After painfully removing the pebble, I fired back.

"There was an invisible fairy behind me that wanted to talk to me about girls! Of course I wanted to grab the food and go!" Kyu seemed ready to full out argue, but it seemed like she knew I had a point.

"Okay, okay. I kind of threw you into a boiling pot of water with no ladder, I'm sorry." She opened her arms, gesturing a hug.

"Will a hug make it better?" I was still quite upset, even with the half-ass apology.

"No, can we just go?" I pressed the button to unlock the car, but she kept walking to me with open arms.

"Come on big boy, just a hug. Afraid to touch girls too?" That just wasn't necessary. I quickly got in the car and sat down, locking my doors. She started knocking on the window like a puppy wanting me to take her home. But I just started the car and turned up the radio. I am guessing she got the hint, so she went to the passenger side door. But I heard her lifting the handle, and letting it back down. I forgot I locked the doors, and just got the bright idea to just storm off and go home without her.

Here I was, at a decently low point in my life. I wasn't satisfied cooking dinner for myself every night, going to bed every night alone, and just generally having no one to talk to. I was desperate, and started doing things I deemed pathetic. But then, almost as if God was trying to mock me, in comes some 'Love Fairy' to save the fucking day. But instead of helping me, all I got is ridicule and shit thrown at my head. Hell, I didn't even know if this fairy was real. I was ready to accept I was insane, because at this point the voices would be welcome company.

I shifted the car into drive, and was ready to lift my foot off the brake. I heard her yell through the window

"Axel! Please, I'm sorry!" She started banging the window, struggling with the door handle even harder and faster now. But I was ready. I was ready to go home and….think about alternatives. The bad kind…of alternatives. But then one click in my head changed my mind, and so I unlocked the door for her. She got in silently, and buckled in. I can tell she knew it wasn't a good idea to try to talk to me right now. I slowly left the parking lot, and headed home. Wanna know what that click in my head was?

'Fuck, she has powers anyway.'


	5. Chapter 5

Kyu was silent the whole ride home. I turned up the radio loud, even though I didn't need to. With some kind of generic rock music blasting, I leaned my head on one hand and drove with the other. I had more thoughts than I could bare, but none of them distracted me from driving. I knew this town like the back of my hand, even though I never really explored it.

By the time we got home, we got hit by a sudden downpour. We hurried in the house, still not speaking a single word to each other. My jacket was soaked, but Kyu's whole body was drenched. I could see her quivering, rubbing her arms for warmth. The spiteful side of me liked seeing her mildly suffer, but I knew I didn't want to be that kind of person.

I grabbed her a large towel and a blanket. I offered her a seat on the couch, and offered her something warm to drink. She just nodded her head, so I made us both some coffee. The rain was hitting the roof hard, just hard enough to muffle the thunder. All this scene needed was candlelight and I guess you could have called it pretty.

"Thank you…Axel." I couldn't tell if she whispered, or just didn't have the spare energy to speak at a normal level.

"Don't worry about it." Part of me was still upset, and that same part of me was kicking myself in the ass for tending to this walking sack of bitchy potpourri. Since I never had the opportunity to before, giving someone the cold shoulder was actually kind of satisfying.

"I'm going to apologize for real now. I'm sorry I just came into your life, and within the first few hours made everything worse for you." I didn't bother to look at her. I just sipped my coffee, trying to ignore her.

"And…I'm sorry I may have put your life at risk." That…I just couldn't ignore.

"Risk? Besides looking crazy, how in the hell was my life at risk?" She looked away, like a frightened child. A shivering, fully grown, neon child.

"Back in the car, when you locked the doors." She still had me at a loss.

"What? Did you think I was gonna get into an accident or something? Can you read the future or whatever?" She started nodding her head, before breathing in deeply.

"Not the future, your mind." Great, this broad can read my mind now.

"So still, what does that have to with my life?"

"You were thinking about suicide for a split second. That's why I started banging the window." She stood to her feet, clutching the blanket around her.

"I….was frustrated when I found out you weren't going to be as simple as I thought. I thought it was just gonna be a matter of getting you out there in the world, but you need more than that." She started getting closer to me, but I didn't back away because I was still shocked she knew about my extremely brief thoughts of suicide.

"All day, everyday, I spend my time with gawky losers who piss their pants at the near sight of a girl. Sometimes they are easy, sometimes all they need is a blow-up doll." That was not a very needed visual.

"I was just hoping to God you would be that simple. And when it was obvious you weren't, I took out my frustration on you. But you have no idea how guilty I felt, when I saw you in the car and realized I almost just helped kill you." I could feel a hint of a white lie in that last sentence. And that hint was enough to set me off. I twisted around, yelling back at her.

"Oh, that's the only reason you feel bad? So some anti-social jerkwad's blood isn't on your hands?" She dropped her blanket, almost like she was ready to throw down.

"Stop doing that to yourself! That's one of the reasons you are so alone!"

"Doing what?! Telling the fucking truth?!" She started to grit her teeth.

"Axel, you don't know the truth. You don't know anything about-"

"I know for damn sure I will never make a difference in someone's life!" I don't know what it was I felt, yelling at her. I could just feel my tongue and teeth becoming sore, almost like the angry words I was spitting were some rough impact on them. I never even realized I felt this way, but now that I did, it hurt bad.

"I live at home, I work at home, all I do is waste away my time at home! I don't make people smile, I don't make anyone appreciate their day. If I live the rest of my life, I will have affected no one! And to me, that sounds like a huge fucking waste!"

She tried to speak, but I wouldn't let her.

"But here I am, yelling at a figure of my God damn imagination! And even my own fucking insane conscience treats me like dirt! So tell me Kyu, why the fuck should I even try!?" And just liked that, she slapped me. Slapped me clear across the cheek. She slapped me so hard, I could feel my neck crack.

"If you were a waste of time and space, I wouldn't have even bothered introducing myself." Her words (combined with the massive sting) made me listen to her finally.

"What I saw just now, is someone who needs another person in their life just as much as another person needs them. What you just told me Axel, is one of the best things I could hear given my profession." She pulled me to the couch, sat me down, and sat in front of me.

"I have never seen someone so passionate about making someone else happy like you before Axel. Hell, you were ready to consider offing yourself if you weren't able to do just that." She wasn't being sarcastic, or snooty, or anything. Her voice was as sweet as honey. Now all of a sudden I am getting chills.

"If I am what you say I am, why am I here? Alone, and struggling?" She giggled, but it was one of those weird somehow-empathetic giggles.

"Because you haven't met the person good enough for you. A lot of guys have a hard time finding a girl they are good enough for, but you are the other way around. A lot of guys are selfish, just wanting a girlfriend for the status or bragging rights. And yes, for the hot puss." For the first time in a while, I laughed along with her.

"That was supposed to be the lesson today, pointing out the lifestyles guys who want the puss live. They live their lives just clawing through, dealing with the bullshit of a relationship to only get the benefits. But don't get me wrong, a lot of girls are like that too. That's why the guys and chicks at the panini store are perfect matches, and that's why I brought you there." It all started coming together. I wanted to apologize for ruining the lesson, but Kyu for some reason apologized first.

"And we could have had that lesson if my fairy ass wasn't so focused on getting the job done soon as possible compared to done right. In fact, a lot of things wouldn't have happened if I treated them correctly. I was responsible for those horrible thoughts you had, and I am responsible for this behavior you are showing. And that is why I am sorry Axel." I could feel her place her hand on my shoulder, and grip it with gentle fingers. She must have hit some secret switch, because on the spot I began to cry.

"It's okay, it's okay." I buried my eyes in my hands, I felt embarrassed.

"Axel, you have no idea how strong you are." I could feel her pull me closer, wrapping her soft blanket sleeves around me. I could feel my forehead on her shoulder, which was still cold from the rain. But I have never felt warmer.  
But I continued to cry, because I still felt so weak. I have never received so much support before, despite how mundane a little embrace could seem. However, needing the support brought in that sense of being pathetic. It was a vicious cycle, one that kept pumping out the tears like a busted dam.

"It's okay to cry, believe me. The strongest cry the most, because they hold the most in."

There we were, in that little huddle. I cried for minutes straight, not wanting to say anything. I couldn't thank Kyu enough for going above and beyond like this for me, someone who was ready to abandon her no less than an hour ago. But still, I had to try. When the tears seemed to stop, I spoke out to her.

"Kyu, thank you." I could feel her pat me on the head.

"You don't need to thank me, you needed this. But I need you to promise me one thing."

"What?"

She pulled her thick sleeve off of me, and looked at me dead in the eyes.

"Never, ever, ever…have those same thoughts you did in the car. I don't care how brief they were, or how serious you were about them. You have a purpose, and don't you dare deny that or try to take it away." Her words were heavy, heavy enough to bring my head back down.

"I came here because I had to help you. But now, I'm staying here…because I want to help you. Look at me Axel." I did, and never before did I notice how green her eyes were.

"Promise me. Right now." I smiled, and nodded.

"I promise Kyu." Without changing her expression, she said to me

"Good. Now come on, we got work to do." She stood to her feet, knocking the blanket down to the couch. I felt energized, and completely renewed. Whatever were in my words and tears were holding me back, but now I could just feel like nothing was gonna stop me. And to kick-start that newfound energy, I had to ask Kyu one question.

"So Kyu, how well can you mind read?"

"Oh….um…..eh. A little better than a real mentalist, but not as good as a fictional mentalist."

"Thank God!" I pretended to wipe sweat from my brow, and we both got one hell of a laugh out of it.

I felt a lot of different things today. I felt down, angry, depressed, confused, crazy, even suicidal. However, I also felt happy. Something I haven't had too much of lately. But more than anything else…

I felt ready.


	6. Chapter 6

"So since you aren't a hundred percent sure what kind of girl you want, let's just practice talking someone of the female race."

Kyu told me we have to officially start the learning process. Going off my horrible performance at the panini store, she knew just having a conversation could use some work.

"Now let's say this girl started the conversation with you. She brings up the weather. How do you respond?"

"I guess, talk about the weather?" She gave me a big thumbs down and her own custom buzzer noise.

"Eeeh! No one wants to talk about the weather, literally no one. It's just a conversation starter. Now try again." I can't believe the simple art of 'talking' had such a complicated science to it.

"Umm…talk about sports?" This time was a double thumbs down.

"Eeeh! What does sports have to do with the weather? You don't keep talking about the conversation starter, it's only to get things going. You don't drive the car with the jumper cables still attached to the battery do you? Use the weather to turn the conversation into something better. Specifically, something that could get the girl talking about things she has done or things about her. Key word is 'her' Axel." Everything she said made so much sense, but I was still having the hardest time trying to find something to talk about. Weather….weather…what does weather do?

"Well, uh, weather can ruin vacations sometimes. Maybe talk about vacations?" One of the thumbs rocketed into the air.

"Ding ding ding! Vacations is a good one! Now give me a transition, bring up vacations in a normal smooth way. I'll start." She cleared her throat, preparing herself for a speech of some sort.

"So I can't stand all this rainy weather we are having, how about you?"

"Me neither. I wish I could just live down in Florida and go to theme parks all the time."

"Oh my God, I know right!?"

"I was just there a few weeks ago, when was the last time you were there?" Instead of responding, she just held up an open palm, waiting for me to smack it. I gave her the high five, and she applauded me.

"And then the conversation is rolling after that. That was awesome Axel, awesome. Now, let's try another. But this time we aren't gonna plan ahead. Ready?" I leaned forward in my chair, anxious to get going. Almost like I was a high school student ready to burn something in Chemistry class. I nodded my head and she took it away.

"You know, I'm not really feeling this bar right now. The drinks are horrible, and the bartender is a dick. Should I get the manager or something?"

"Here, I'll go get him for you. What did the bartender say?" Instead of continuing the conversation, Kyu gave me a slightly concerned look.

"Axel, that wasn't horrendous, but still not very good. You were gonna try to play the white knight there, and that's a decent approach. But a white knight wouldn't go to the king about a bandit would he? Who would he go to?" I took the hint, and waved for her to start over.

"The bartender is a dick. Should I get the manger or something?"

"No, no, I'll deal with it. Which bartender is it?"

"That one over there, the bald one."

"Okay, wait right here." I started standing up, implying I was about to settle someone straight. Kyu gestured me another high five. After smacking that one, she gave me even more praise.

"I don't know if that was on purpose, but that was perfect. Some guys would have brought the girl with them to confront the bartender, but that isn't the best of ideas. If you wanna act tough, don't bring the girl. It shows either you aren't brave enough by yourself, or you are bringing her just to show off, and girls can tell that shit a mile away. Ready for one more?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, this is gonna be a tricky one. Don't panic." I was never this excited to learn before. Hell, I even had a spiral notebook and was taking notes furiously.

"Aw man, I don't have enough money for this popcorn. The person wouldn't even cut me some slack, it was only two dollars."

"Two bucks? Don't worry, I got it." Out of nowhere, I got the buzzer.

"Eeeh!" I mouth out 'What?' to Kyu, who just shook her head. I was waiting for her to start over, but I guess I wasn't getting that luxury this time.

"Umm…..here, let me talk to the cashier." And again.

"Eeeh!"

"Umm…God damn it…uhh…..want me to get the manger?"

"Eeeh! Eeeh! Eeeh!" I was flustered, I had no idea what to do.

"Look Kyu, I don't-"

"Eeeeeeeeeh!"

"The fuck am I supposed to do here!?" She stopped buzzing, and put her hands on her lap.

"Axel, listen. First off, covering the two bucks. Never, ever, do that for someone you don't know. She can either just be trying to hustle you, or she could see you are kind of desperate, throwing your money at a stranger."

"But I'm just trying to be nice."

"I understand that. But the fact that a girl went to you to complain, that makes everything different. If you overheard her arguing with the cashier about it, then the two bucks would be appropriate. But she has a hidden agenda if she comes up to you." I can see why Kyu was a love fairy, she must have seen every possible outcome of stuff like this at least two or three times.

"Now confronting the cashier. The white knight approach does not work for cashiers. If the cashier said nasty shit, maybe. But this cashier technically did nothing wrong, think about that. He isn't supposed to give away free food, so he isn't the wrong. If you tried settling him straight, as much as the girl may want you to, you would be nothing more than an obnoxious dick-bag." It was amazing at times how wide Kyu's dictionary of insults could be.

"And the manager thing is a combination of the two. Obnoxious dick-bag being fooled by this girl hungry for popcorn. So, what do you think you should do? Remember, you are kind of into this girl, so don't treat her like any other normal person."

"Okay….umm….." I drew a blank. I didn't think starting a conversation was appropriate since the both of us were about to see a movie. Being a white knight would make me a douche. I had no clue.

"Need some help Axel?" I put my hands together like I was about to pray.

"Yes, please."

"Okay, what if I told you, you already had your popcorn when this goes down?" My popcorn? What does my popcorn have to do with anything? It's my popcorn, not this girl's popcorn. I paid for it fair and square, what am I supposed to do? Give her my…oooohhhh. I could see Kyu grin, almost like she knew I figured it out. I waved my hand again, signaling for her to start over.

"It was just two dollars."

"Hey, I'm sorry about that. But you know, you can have some of mine if you want."

"Oh no, no, I can't take away your popcorn from you. You paid for it, that's not fair."

"So why don't we share it?"

"Oh..ummm." I could see Kyu really getting into character. She was turning away, like she was actually bashful.

"Well, I will pay you back for half of it. Is that okay?" This was a trap! I could just feel it! I was on a roll. I didn't want the buzzer again, it was really irritating. I remembered what Kyu said, don't treat her normally. So I tried to think of what I would 'normally' do, which was agreed to letting her pay me back. But if I wouldn't accept her money, Kyu already told me I could seem desperate. What do I do? Fuck, what do I do?

"Well, I got a better idea." Kyu turned back around, looking at me with wide, popcorn-wanting eyes.

"What's that?"

"You could sit next to me for the movie, I am here alone after all." Kyu startled struggling, deciding if her character should take my offer.

"I…..I….." I started leaning in, anxious for her answer. I was also mentally preparing myself for a buzzer, or something to be thrown at me.

"I'm…I'm…." Kyu, come on. My love life is at stake here. The closer I leaned, the further her head turned away from me. I only kept leaning in because I thought she was going to whisper something just to be an ass, and I wanted to hear whatever it would be. But instead she shouted right in my ear

"I'm so proud of you!" She lunged at me with open arms, tackling me (and my chair) backward to the ground. I thought fairies would be light, but her landing on my chest completely knocked the wind out of me. Plus, her gripping my neck with her arms made it even harder to breathe. I didn't know successfully talking to a girl gets you a nice prize of suffocation. Maybe being single wasn't so bad after all.

"Axel, since when were you such a sly dog?" I tried telling her to get off, but my puffs of air just came out as

"Ah….ah…"

I could hear her giggling at me. She patted my chest a few times, before climbing off of me. I pulled my way back to my feet, but I just hunched right over in pain. I was in such desperate need of air, I felt the entire process of breathing inside and out. All the way to the alveoli. A lot of people forget they have alveoli.

"Axel, that was spectacular. We will practice that every now and then, but as long as you are around girls in generic situations, you will be just fine." Since words weren't an option, I just did my best to lift her a thumbs up.

"Once you refilled your delicious oxygen, we will have one more practice and that will be all for the day." I had a somewhat decent amount of air in me, so I wasted on it on replying.

"And…what…kind of….practice?" She giggled at me, and this wasn't another empathetic giggle. It was one those sadistic giggles, like one of those giggles only psychotic females could do. Like the kind of giggle Harley Quinn does before she commits murder with a bat. She gingerly walked over to me, while I was still hunched over getting my breath. I could feel the air hit my ear as she whispered very slowly

"Kissing."


	7. Chapter 7

"No."

"Come on."

"No."

"Axel, just a little wouldn't hurt."

"Not gonna happen." Never in my life did I think someone could use kissing as a threat, but Kyu was just a wonder at performing miracles.

"Tell me right here and right now, why you don't want to practice kissing." She was standing in a scholar like posture. One arm holding up her elbow, while one hand gripped her chin.

"Because I don't think I need to just yet." Just a few minutes ago we were practicing how to simply speak to a girl, and how to initiate the conversation. I may be living in a different world, but I don't think having the ability to speak to someone gets you far enough for a lip smack.

"Don't need to? Axel, what do you think comes in between talking and kissing? You say hi, she says hi, and boom. You guys swap spit on the spot!"

"Kyu, I thought you were supposed to help me." She laughed (and I can tell it wasn't with me).

"I know, I know. Just having a little fun with you." She came over to me, and placed her arm around my shoulder. Sort of the thing a big brother would do, except it was a love fairy, which really made the gesture awkward.

"So what do you want to go over tomorrow Axel?"

"Umm…I guess things to talk about? I know how to start the conversation, but I don't know how to keep it going."

"Yeah you do." She kept staring off into nothing, not even really acknowledging what I said.

"No, I don't."

"You keep talking to me don't you?" She looked at me, with almost a look of boredom on her face.

"But that's not…that's not…" I was really trying to come up with the words, but for some reason I couldn't explain to Kyu talking to a pink fairy designed to get me laid wasn't the same as talking to a girl I was attracted to.

"It's not what? Talking to a pink fairy designed to get you laid isn't the same as talking to a girl you like?" Wait….what?

"How did…yeah. Yeah, exactly that."

"You'd be surprised Axel. Talking to a stranger is nowhere near as tough as a lot of people think. Starting the conversation and just having simple shit to say is the tough part, and you have proved to me in just one day you got that shit down." She took her arm off my shoulder and faced me.

"And just think. If it's a girl you like, and you already have a conversation raring to go, how tough could it be?" I shrugged my shoulders, agreeing with her. She then took hold of my hands.

"That's why you gotta have more faith in yourself. Which is why tomorrow, is makeover day." No male ever wants to hear the word 'makeover', especially if he is the subject of the sentence.

"Makeover day? Why? Isn't that a thing girls do?" She pinched her nose, and just grunted.

"It's not a hard concept shit-for-brains. Makeover doesn't just mean poofy hair and eyeliner."

"So what does it mean then?"

"It means a new wardrobe, some facial hair, a haircut, some shopping, and some working out." The good intentions were there, but all I heard was 'Money, money, and more money'.

"Kyu, I'm not made of money. I mean I'll do what I can, but I don't have a TV show budget right now. And everything you just said just came to a total of an entire TV season." For the first time, I think I actually stumped Kyu with my stupidity. All she could do is muster a confused moan.

"Axel, sweetie, honey, sugar bear. The new clothes? I got it. The working out? I got it. And everything involving your face and hair, I especially 'got'." I didn't like it when Kyu used adverbs.

"Especially?"

"Especially. Now get some sleep. We did good today." She gestured me another high-five, and I smacked the palm of her hand. She walked over to my couch, grabbed a blanket, and made herself comfortable. I made my way up to my bedroom, and did the same. I turned off my lamp, and laid my head on the pillow.

I always looked forward to resting my head. Because as soon as I did, I had all the time in the world to contemplate and think about my day. Remembering what I did, and what I saw. And if it was a decent day, those thoughts always brought me into a wonderland of scenarios and scenes that could happen the next day. You can only imagine the thoughts I had this one night. Meeting Kyu, the disaster at the panini store, crying away all my negativity. With a day so full of weird ups and horrendous downs, I guess you could call it a good day.

I starting becoming anxious about what was to come tomorrow. I could only hope it was just some shopping, and no more surprise 'tests' from Kyu. Running some personal errands is never a difficult task, but when a walking lollipop is helping you fall in love, you don't quite look at simple errands the same. But then as I started feeling anxious, I remembered Kyu's advice to me to be more confident. Here I was worrying about getting a haircut, which helped me realize there was no need to panic. Looking at my own pathetic thoughts through a new perspective really helped calm me down.

"You got this man." I whispered to myself.

"Tomorrow is gonna be a good day."


	8. Chapter 8

When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't hear anything from the other room. I slept like a baby, all the way until eleven o'clock. I just assumed Kyu would be up and about by now. I got up out of bed and went to the living room. On the couch I could see Kyu, sitting with her legs crossed and a sketchpad over her lap. She was going to town drawing something, her hand did not stop.

"Morning." I said to her.

"Oh, morning Axel. Didn't even see you there. Come over here, I want to show you something." She shifted on the couch, giving me room to sit next to her.

"What do you think?" On the sketchpad was a very handsome looking guy. Even though I could see multiple eraser marks, I was impressed by Kyu's skill. The guy had a short, wavy haircut that sort of stuck up to one side. His goatee was dark, but thin. He had on a skull t-shirt, with shaded in pants (I assumed they were jeans.) On the sketchpad was basically a male model that just needed some coloring.

"Damn, this is awesome Kyu. I didn't know you could draw."

"Yeah, it's one of the few hobbies I have. One guy I had to work with kept constantly buying me pencils and sketchpads, so I have a lot to go through."

"So is this just a doodle, or a guy you know?"

"He will be." She raised up her eyebrows, almost like she was waiting for me to say 'Momma' for the first time. She kept waving her hand in a circular motion.

"Am I supposed to get something?"

"Yeeeeees." She stretched out her 'Yes', matching the speed of her hand with her voice.

"This is a guy I will soon know….come on…."

"Is he, a future client or something?" Her arms and eyebrows just dropped, followed by a grunt.

"This is you Axel. Or at least…it will be." I looked down at the drawing again. The body and wardrobe had absolutely nothing in common with me. But then when I looked at the face, I guess I could kind of see it.

"Me? You are gonna turn me into a model?"

"Axel, just because a young guy is somewhat handsome doesn't mean he poses for teen magazines. I can't turn you into a universal ten, but what I have drawn here is definitely some girl's ten." I didn't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment.

"Okay, but how is this gonna work?"

"Simple. The mall. Any single man's dream." She closed the sketchbook and stood up.

"When I woke up this morning, I did a little bit of research and planned out where to go. The mall is a big place, so trying out every location would take forever."

"I know how big the mall is Kyu…" Yes, I didn't get out much. But I wish Kyu would stop forgetting I have left my house before.

"Just let me do my job and sound all 'guide-y'." She gestured me to stand up.

"Now when we go today, there are two things I want to make clear. One, this trip has nothing to do with finding or talking to girls. This is all preparation. And two, people will see me this time. Which reminds me, I need to borrow a jacket."

"Why just a jacket?"

"Because a little fairy like me won't fit in your big boy clothes Axel." I should just stop asking questions.

"Plus, normal people don't have wings. And fairies don't make clothes meant to hide their wings. So jacket, now."

"As you command your highness." I went back to my room and scavenged my closet.

"Does she want a pullover? Leather? Gah, I can't stand this shit." After a few minutes, I just went with the biggest article of clothing I had. A large black hoodie with a busted zipper.

"Hope she likes it." I went back to the living room, nearly presenting the jacket.

"Kyu, I hope this will do. I wasn't sure if you wanted a certain-" But then as I lowered the jacket, I saw Kyu, practically posing.

"Oh my God…" Her hair was down in a long pink bob, framing her face. She was wearing a red tube top, not leaving any imagination about her midriff. She was wearing long black leather pants, which led down to her black boots.

"Take a picture, it will last longer." Up until she spoke, I thought I was in some sort of video game designing my dream character.

"Wha…what?" I was completely stunned. I could hear her giggle.

"What are you ogling me for? I was practically in my underwear beforehand."

"Duh..I…uh… I'm not ogling."

"I beg to differ. Like what you see?" Yes, I did. But for some reason, my brain couldn't handle it. She started walking over to me, and for some reason seductively. At least…I think it was seductive.

"I don't want any girl talking to you at all today, you don't need the distractions. Since I'm one sexy hot momma today, other girls won't even dare approach us." After one more giggle, she asked me

"So what do you think?" I couldn't say anything. My brain didn't want to work. I could not believe I was acting this way. I kept trying to beg my body into responding. 'This isn't some girl, this is just Kyu!' I needed to find some way to convince my body to man up. 'She came up to you! That means she has a motive! Play it cool!' And so, with Kyu's own advice in hand, I responded

"You just look so different, that's all." And just like that, Kyu's expression just died.

"Oh." I remember the look on her face when she talked to me about my thoughts of suicide. Her expression back then was so warm, and so sincere. But right now she had that same look on her face, but it was the complete opposite. It was just disappointment I saw in her eyes.  
She backed away and turned around. With her back to me, I could see her arms were crossed over her chest.

"No, I mean, you look good! Very good! I was just so use to-"

"Just give me the jacket Axel." She reached out her arm, still facing away from me.

"But I just meant…"

"Now." And like a sick puppy, I sulked over to her. Her tone was so dark and heavy, it was intimidating. I placed the jacket in her hand, and backed away. I could see hear struggling putting the jacket on. I could see her trying to gently place the jacket over her wings, but she couldn't reach far enough.

"Here, want some help?" I walked over to her, with my hand reaching out. But as soon as I placed my hand on the jacket, she snapped back at me.

"No!" I flinched, I thought she was about to bite me. With one large green eye shining from her bangs, she glared at me until I backed away. She continued to struggle, until I heard her yell.

"Just get the car started. I'll be out in a sec." I grabbed my keys and with one quick look at her I said

"Okay." Walking to the car, I felt like I just lost the semi-final. I was on a roll, undefeated. But then I choked, and can't go all the way now. It was a beautiful summer day, but the sun didn't mean shit at that point. I was sitting in my car, scared as Hell for whenever Kyu came out. But then I became worried if Kyu would come out at all. But soon enough, here she comes. The hoodie was over head, and her hands were in the pockets. I didn't want to look into her eyes, just in case she would turn me into stone.

When she got into the car, she actually closed the door gingerly and put on her seatbelt.

"You can go to the mall now." Without responding, I shifted the car and left the driveway. The quickest way to the mall was mostly highway and the windows were rolled down to get cold air in the car. The highways were relatively straight, so I was able to safely sneak looks at Kyu. Her chin was in her hand, as she stared out the window. I could only see one side of her face, the same side she snapped at me with. Her hair was blowing in the wind, and the sun was shining down in her direction. Underneath that hood, her skin was a pale gold. It was the weirdest feeling, looking at her. I knew what her face looked like, I knew it well. But seeing her in the hoodie looking out the window, made me want to see more of it. I wanted to see the details, and I wanted to see her whole face shine in the sun. But like an uninvited guest, my pathetic thoughts came in. 'She looked kind of good in different clothes, stop going crazy over her face.' I shook my head, trying to clear my head of not just those pathetic thoughts, but all of my thoughts in general. I turned down the radio, because I wanted to talk to her. We didn't need another silent car ride.

"So, you're wings don't hurt all bundled up in the jacket like that?" Without looking at me, but no hesitation either, she responded.

"Nah. I can kind of fold of them up comfortably, but bigger jackets still help a lot." This is good, she seemed to have calmed down. Keep it going Axel, don't let her down again.

"Hey, I'm uh…sorry about what I said."

"You don't have to be. I overreacted."

"Well, I was an ass. You look good Kyu, you look great actually. But I always assume girls don't want hear flattering compliments from ugly fucks like me." That gotta chuckle out of her.

"As true as that may be, you aren't an ugly fuck though Axel. But still. I don't get the opportunity to dress up like this often, so I guess I was just expecting you to say what I wanted to hear."

"You guess?" I could hear her chuckle again. This time, she turned around. And I got that full view of her face I for some reason wanted. What made it all better was she was grinning. I wanted to keep it that way.

"You know everyone and everything inside and out, I'm surprised to hear you say that." While I was saying that, I just realized how close of words 'Flattering' and 'Flirting' were. I'm gonna have to ask Kyu about that.

"Well Axel, I know a lot of things. But I don't know everything. I don't know a lot about myself actu-"She hesitated.

"Yeah? Not a lot about yourself you said?" Instead of responding, she just cleared her throat.

"Oh, I love this song!" She then turned the radio way up and looked back at the window. I wanted to keep talking, but I happened to love the song too. I let it be, and kept driving. Despite how loud the music was, I could detect a little hint of Kyu singing along.

We got to the mall right about when the song ended. When we got out of the car, Kyu took her hood down. She waved her hair, and her hair went right back to the way it was before she put the hood even on.

"So Axel, let's go." We started walking but then Kyu reminded me.

"Remember, we don't want girls talking to you. I'm gonna pretend and act like I am your girlfriend, so just let me do all the heavy lifting. If I grab your arm, let me. If I hug you in a weird way, let me. If I say something that isn't true, let me. If I start acting like a bitch, let me. Got it?" I saluted her.

"Roger, Captain." With one more chuckle, she grabbed my wrist and started gently pulling me along.

The mall wasn't busy at all today. Just a few stray shoppers here and there. Kyu said our first stop was to buy some clothes. She brought us to a small store that seemed to specialize in dark color t-shirts. I didn't really follow any styles, especially nothing gothic or anything like that. But my current wardrobe consisted of mostly black and red shirts and cargo shorts because throughout my shopping adventures, graphic t-shirts and cargo shorts just happened to be the cheapest.

"So why this store Kyu?" She picked out a black t-shirt, one with a small flaming skull in the corner near the shoulder.

"This store sells shirts like these, which say 'I actually put effort into what I wear.'" Then she pointed at the shirt I was currently wearing, which was a skeleton on a motorcycle that took up the entire shirt.

"This just says 'Wal-Mart'. See the difference?" Who would have thought different kinds of skulls can tell so much about one's self-esteem.

"So Axel, go through these with me and pick out a few you like. Nothing is off limits, except shirts that are citrus colors."

"Okay, not that I want them anyway, but why not citrus colors?" I was wondering what scientific and thought-out reasoning could be behind a certain chain of colors, but instead all Kyu said was

"Eh, I think they look stupid."

"Fair enough."

So in the end, we got about a week's worth of T-shirts. I didn't think much of the pricing, they were just graphic T-shirts. But when I heard the cashier say 'Seventy dollars and ninety cents' my heart dropped. But without a moment's hesitation, Kyu handed over a bright pink credit card.

"Kyu, I would have payed for them. I don't expect you to-" she raised a finger to my lips.

"Babe, remember? I got it." I was gonna question why the hell she used 'Babe', but then I remembered we were playing a couple. I wanted to rub it in her face.

"Alright, thanks sweetheart." I exaggerated the 'sweetheart' in which I could tell made Kyu grin. The cashier gave Kyu back her card, and we headed out of the store. The first step we took out of the store, Kyu playfully smacked me in the back of the head.

"Fuck you, sweetheart." She exaggerated it the way I did, and we both got a good laugh out of it. We made our way to the next store, which unfortunately was on the opposite end of the mall. As we were walking, I started noticing something odd. Whenever another guy would pass us, I could see Kyu step unnecessarily close to me. And whenever a group of guys passed us, she would clutch my arm. I know she didn't want girls talking to me, but I couldn't tell why she was acting this way in front of guys. Was she trying to scare off gay men too? But that would mean every guy in the mall right now is gay, which I didn't find likely. It was still puzzling me, but right before we got into the entrance of the store, a few guys started walking toward us. But soon would I find out, they were only walking towards Kyu.

"Fuck." I could hear Kyu whisper under her breath. The guys seemed young, younger than us actually. Possibly seniors in high schools.

"Hey there gorgeous." I could hear one of them say. Kyu kept dragging us along, now starting to go faster and faster. Until two of them ran in front of us.

"Hey, hey, where you going baby?" I didn't like this at all. Not even because young punks were surrounding us, but I could tell Kyu was terrified. If she knew something was wrong, then something was definitely wrong.

"Look, fellas, me and my boyfriend here are just doing some shopping." Fellas? She didn't call them shitheads, fucktards, punk-asses, nothing. She just called them…Fellas. I wanted to ask her what was wrong. But these little assholes weren't giving me the time to.

"Boyfriend, eh? Hey bro, you don't mind sharing a little, do you?" They all started snickering. There was a lot of things I could have said, but I didn't want to break Kyu's rules and speak out.

"We got a hot little sassy mamma right here boys." All I could hear them saying were stupid words like honey, baby, and mommy.

"Eh, why don't you ditch the big stack there and come with us sweetie, we gonna show you a good time." Finally, Kyu screamed at them.

"Fuck off you cunts!" I was already numb to hearing her use nasty words, but whenever says the big C-word (and 'mean' it), it was a bad sign. A fucking lion would be retreating at this point, but these punks just started laughing. There were three of them, but I only saw two. Kyu was clutching my left arm, but I could hear the little asshole to my left as well.

"You know, speaking of cunts, baby…" I looked over, and saw him touching her shoulder.

Now, I am in my mid-twenties. But not until that moment, did I know what true anger felt like. My veins felt extremely warm, and my brain just felt like some rock that was smashing around inside of my skull every time I moved. I didn't feel anything else, my body was numb. It was one of the scariest moments I can ever recall, feeling like I was almost transforming. Transforming into something I didn't want to be. But as the warmth grew hotter, I could feel my head twitching, shaking up that rock in my skull. The more and more I saw his hand on Kyu, the hotter my veins got. And for the first time in my life, I was a man.

I grabbed his wrist, and pulled Kyu away. With an extremely hard tug, I pulled him towards me. Since he had no balance, he couldn't react. I grabbed the collar of his shirt with both of my hands, digging into the material. And without absolute ease, I hoisted him into the air. Instead of struggling, his eyes were set straight on mine.

"Bro….bro…. I'm sorry….please…please!" I could hear his friends beg from behind me to let him go, and not to hurt him. But I couldn't make any promises, because not even I knew what I was going to do. But knowing I had the leverage, I could feel my veins chill to a lukewarm, but my head was still killing me. Instantly, I remembered watching Kyu shivering, and how I enjoyed watching someone else suffer. That same sick side of me loved seeing this kid fear for his life. But just like with Kyu, I remembered I didn't want to be that kind of person. I pulled him in close.

"Listen here cock-sucker." I was growling at him through my teeth.

"See that beautiful woman behind me? The one you and your dick-bag friends were harassing?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"'Yeah' what?!"

"Yeah sir!" He began to cry.

"That beautiful woman is mine. And if you ever, even think about saying another word to her again, you are your buddies are going to lose a few limbs. Am I clear?!"

"Yes sir!" I let him down, but I still gripped his collar. I turned around to see the two punks behind me, ready to run.

"Am I clear!?" And in sync, they said

"Yes sir!"

"Now I want all three of you to apologize to her." I could hear them all say their apologies. One of them tried using words too big for them.

"Now I want all three of you to go home to your mothers, and tell them what you did today. Because they obviously have not whipped your asses enough." I let the one in my grip go, and he ran to his buddies. One of them said okay, and then they all ran off.

My body quickly went back to its normal temperature, and my headache eased away. I tried looking for Kyu, but I couldn't see her.

"Kyu?" And all of a sudden, I could feel two small arms hug me from behind. Followed by a gentle crying.

"Kyu..I.." Through her tears, she said to me

"Don't say anything Axel. We are okay now, let's get you some pants and let's get home."

After some very silent shopping, we got a few pairs of long dark jeans, all to match my new shirts. When we got to the car, I had a few things to say to Kyu, and she had a few things to say to me.

"Listen, Kyu, about those boys…"

"Axel..." She cut me off, but then it seemed like she was in pain, trying to think of something to say to me.

"I don't want….I can't….just start driving. We can talk when we get home."

"Kyu, I want to talk now. I don't want another freaking silent car ride."

"Axel, I know, and I'm sorry. But what we need to discuss has to wait, I don't want you driving during it. Please. Let's just some listen to music, it will be okay." I hated being a sucker, but whenever Kyu didn't talk to me into a snooty tone was a blessing. I did as she told me, and it was another silent ride home.

When we got home, we brought in the bags. I was planning on bringing them straight to my room, but Kyu threw hers down and turned around to face me.

"Axel…I'm not who you think I am." After a day like today, I didn't know what to expect with a sentence like that. I just hoped to God she wasn't a dude.

"Kyu, what does that mean?" She pulled me over to the couch (it must be comfier than I thought, because we already spent a lot of time here on this couch) and took a deep breath in.

"Axel…do you think I'm….outgoing?" She looked away, like she was shy.

"Kyu, you are a love fairy. Of course I think you are outgoing."

"Why do you think I dressed the way I did today?" I didn't like where this is going.

"You already told me. So other girls wouldn't come up to me."

"No, that's not…..that's not it."

"Then what is it?" I could see her preparing herself.

"Axel…the only reason I act like a spoiled little bitch to you is because I'm more insecure than any other guy I have helped so far." Wow, that's heavy. Way heavier than I thought a pink fairy could be.

"You? Insecure? Kyu, come on. You have nothing to be insecure about."

"Axel, listen to me. All of my other clients, all of my friends, everyone. I come off as a snotty, sarcastic, sex driven girl because I know if anyone sees me in any other way, no one would respect me or remember me." I wanted to say something, but I knew it wasn't my place yet.

"I'm a fairy with a cute face, and a quick wit. That's how people want to see me. No one wants to see the sensitive, mushy side of a love fairy named Kyu, no one. Hell, like one of my last clients. If I was one hundred percent myself around him, he wouldn't have ended banging eight plus girls." She curled up her knees, and hugged them with her arms. She then looked away from me.

"One of them was me. I became a trophy, just like the rest of them." It shouldn't have been surprising a love fairy has had sex before, but I guessed what made it seem so out of place was Kyu's expertise is love. And I know for a fact, love is not having sex for sport.

"But then why did you-"

"Why? Why did I sleep with him? Because if I don't have sex with clients, I probably wouldn't…uh…"

"At all?" She took a moment to try and say anything. She still didn't look me in the eyes.

"Yeah, at all. Sometimes, sex is the only way I feel like people remember me. Even if the only thing they remember is what my body felt like, it's better than nothing." She buried her face in her knees.

"That is why I dressed that way today, so hopefully people at least remember me. But it was fucking stupid from the start. I hate boys, I fucking hate guys like them. They scare me…they scare me bad. But of all fucking people, I should have known dressing that way would attract them." I had enough.

"Kyu, you dressed that way for my sake. Don't blame yourself at all for what happened."

"Yeah, but Axel-"

"Kyu, I'm sorry. But it's my turn to speak." She took her face out of her knees, and finally looked at me.

"Kyu, you can be sensitive or mushy. You can be snarky or sarcastic. You can throw shit at me, belittle me, or you can prevent me from thinking about suicide. As long as you are Kyu, you have no reason to be insecure. Be the Kyu you want to be, not the one people will remember. Because the important people in your life will remember the Kyu you want to be." I placed my hand on her knee.

"I'm one of them. And I will tell you why. Because no matter how you act, or the decisions you make, I am going to fall in love because of you. I am going to live the rest of my life happy because of you. I will meet the girl that needs me most because of you. I'm going to remember Kyu, the awesome love fairy that saved my life." And just like that, she rocketed towards me with arms wide open. Since I already knew what this meant, I opened my arms too. With her arms wrapped over and around my neck, I wrapped mine around on her back beneath her shoulders. I could feel her wings underneath the jacket.

"Thank you, Axel."

"You're welcome." There we were, hugging it out on the couch. The silence was so welcome in that warm moment. The only thing I could hear was us breathe, and there was something relaxing to it.

"Hey, Axel?"

"Yeah Kyu?" Without letting me go, she continued to speak.

"If for whatever reason, we can't find you the right girl, you already did it."

"Did what?" This is when she let me go, and I already missed the feeling of being in her arms.

"Made a difference in someone else's life." Hearing her say that made me so happy, it hit the secret switch again. Out came more tears.

"That's why I know there is someone specially designed for you out there. Because someone out there needs you to make them happy, because only someone like you can." I was able to chuckle between my cries.

"You know what Kyu?"

"What's up?" I wiped away my tears, and looked at her.

"You need to make me a promise as well."

"Sure, what is it?" I placed my hand on her shoulder, just like she did the other day.

"When we find the right girl for me, I don't want you take any other clients until you find love for yourself."

"Axel…I…"

"Here you are, helping give my life a purpose. Someone out there needs you to make them happy as well, and I don't mean finding them a girlfriend. I mean, someone out there who needs you to love them." I could hear her gasp for a little air.

"Asshole…." I could see her eyes beginning to water.

"I hate crying…." I watched her struggle, holding in her tears. She tried to wipe them away, but her eyes were flooding too fast. This time, I went over to her with open arms. This time, I could feel her hair on my cheeks, and how soft it was. I could hear her take a few deep breaths of air.

"Here we are, a bunch of crying assholes crying on a couch." I chuckled, but didn't let her go. Her grip on me didn't loosen either.

"So Kyu, feeling better?"

"Better than ever Axel." We let each other go. She wiped away her face one more time.

"So, Axel. I think we should call it a day. We made a lot of progress. We got clothes, harassed, and cried."

"Yup, I feel like I can win over any girl already." She laughed, ready to come back at me.

"Any girl? You sure about that big boy?"

"Absolutely. Hell, I can probably get an alien and a goddess in bed if I wanted to, I am already a master of women."

"Even…a cat girl too?"

"A what?" She laughed again, this time harder. There was obviously some inside joke I wasn't getting here.

"Never mind Axel."


	9. Chapter 9

Kyu's Awesome Diary

Entry 1

So I just passed about my first week with Axel Baron. I never really kept a journal like this before, but something like this might be worth some money one day. Plus, I have a lot on my mind this time around. Out of every other clients I have had, nothing ever happened that was thought provoking. Nothing was ever out of the norm, just a lonely guy that needed a kick in the ass. But when I slammed into Axel's life, something was so different about him.

I guess the first thing I could notice was his social attitude. A lot of the other guys I help couldn't even talk to another guy let alone a girl, social interaction was a gigantic fear for them. I can't even put it into words what is was they were afraid of. But with Axel, interaction isn't the problem, as much as his expectations were. He felt like he was so bad at socializing, it could ruin the other's day. Right off the bat, this guy was already the least selfish person I have helped.

Plus, his views are down to earth as well. When he saw me, the first thing he did was try to kick me out of his own house, because he didn't know who I was. And that's honestly the most realistic and normal thing someone can do. If it was anybody else, they would assume it's a dream and think I was some God given sex toy. It would be flattering, if most of them weren't acne-plagued blobs.

Speaking of acne, Axel just takes care of himself so much better. His hygiene is good, he has a great income, and he is very independent. Which is another issue for him unfortunately. He is so good at being by himself, he doesn't necessarily need anyone else. My guess is maybe a very distant relationship with his parents.

So when you get a guy so 'normal' as Axel, it's tough deciding what the problem is. I have already established the fact he is actually very un-selfish, so that's one big piece of helping me fix this puzzle. Someone who is so concerned about others tends to stop caring about themselves, leading to extreme self-esteem issues. If we put that combined with the likely parents theory, then maybe we have our solution.

Now that I think about it, I really hope it is just a theory. Anyone who gets their issues from their parents are really tough to find somebody for. With lack of better words, someone with these issues wants to fall in love with somebody that could kind of fill in the blanks their parents didn't. Whether it be the affection, the support, or anything like that. But it might be different in Axel's case.

On the first day I was with him, I pushed Axel too far and he spoke out. He yelled at me 'I will never make a difference in someone's life', and it's scary hearing someone say that. From what it sounds like, maybe Axel thinks he never made his parents proud.

If anyone else is reading this, you are probably yelling at me the things you think are obvious. 'Hey Kyu, just ask him if you aren't sure. Why don't you contact the parents? You shouldn't help this guy based off assumptions.' My response is (to you, whoever is for whatever reason reading my journal) that is the last thing I want to do. I have already dug up enough of this guy's monsters, and I don't want to make him snap again. Especially after what happened at the mall.

Oh my God, the mall. This is another reason I'm not gonna bring up this shit with Axel. When we were at the mall, we were doing some shopping and errands to spruce up Axel's look. But then a couple of obnoxious twats stopped us, and knowing me and feelings towards obnoxious twats, a scene broke out. But that is when I saw the worst possible side of Axel, the one I wished I never had to see. If you know anyone with parental issues, then nine times out of ten you know one of the common themes with them. And that is anger.

They don't deal with depression, or anxiety, or separation issues. It's always anger that ruins these people. All of it comes from their self-hate, which is why I hate anger so much. I have dealt with depressed guys before, but them being depressed is still being 'them'. When someone has anger issues, they almost transform.

If an animal becomes depressed, they use love and affection to make it better. But if animal becomes angry and violent…they shoot it. Angry people don't want people to make them feel better, they want blood. And Axel had it bad, scary bad.

He held this kid up by his shirt, with absolute ease. His voice was scary low and dangerously deep. He wasn't Axel, it was this major Mr. Hyde situation. A lot of girls would be so happy the man they were with would be brave and protect them like that. But I wasn't, because this Axel wasn't some hero. This Axel was capable of seriously hurting someone, just because he wanted to. But what made it all worse was it was because of me, I'm the reason Axel would have been shot if he was some sort of animal.

Twice now, I could have ruined this guy's life. I almost led him to suicide, and who knows what could have happened to him at the mall if things got even more out of hand. But despite all that, this guy welcomes with me open arms and is ready to learn until he finds the love of his life. And that's one of the qualities that shines about him. I just hope I could get him over his self-doubt, because he deserves to be happy.

This past week has been pretty eventful, I will say that much. The first few days were choppy, without a doubt. I'm sure if he wanted to, Axel's perspective on this whole thing could be one hell of a story. Besides, never before has a guy made me cry before.

When we got back home from the mall, I confessed to him that I am actually a pretty insecure little bitch. It wasn't even really a part of some plan I had, I was just sick of holding it in. And part of me knew, of all the people I have met, Axel was the right one to tell.

Fuck me, I'm getting way off track here. That was supposed to be it, but after reading what I have written so far, this thing sucks. I just started blabbing away all of my thoughts, and this thing became disorganized pretty freaking fast. I guess I should have started writing these a while ago, because I could use some practice.

I didn't even go over Axel's progress so far. After this past week, we got him a Gym membership and got him that shave and haircut we forgot about that one day. I have been trying to come up with more social exercises as well, but it just doesn't seem that Axel needs them. He's not going around finding digits like they are loose change, but talking to women just doesn't seem to scare him anymore. We still have verbal practices every now and then, but Axel is managing to turn whatever situation at hand into a conversation. Just yesterday, he started talking to a girl at the gym about different leg exercises. (I only have him doing cardio, because in my opinion he just needs to lose a little flab. But he insisted some muscle wouldn't hurt.) Soon, I'm gonna let him venture out on his own without me at his side, because I don't want to become a crutch to him.

It's almost like seeing a baby bird you raised starting to stretch its wings. You just can't wait for him to hop out of the nest and soar into the sky. Not to sound selfish, but I can't wait for the moment Axel falls in love. Because the sooner he does that, the sooner I get to find a man for myself.

But at the same time, I am having a ball. Axel has really become a good friend of mine, it's honestly kind of weird. Sometimes we just hang out for the hell of it. It's fun seeing him laugh and smile, and he makes me laugh and smile too. It's been a while since I have had a 'friend'. Everyone I meet I 'have' to interact with, whether it be a client or a potential match for my client. I have had no genuine friendships for a long time, and it kind of sucks to realize that. But Axel feels like one of the first. Sometimes, he acts like I'm not his designated love fairy, but a buddy of his. And it feels great. No, not great. It feels really fucking awesome, knowing I'm not some means to an end for him. I can't help but envy whatever lucky girl ends up with this guy.

So I think that about does it. I'm ready to throw down this pencil and go watch a movie or something. I'll make sure to keep these going every now and then, this was kind of fun.

But I also have to make sure to keep this away from Axel. Everything I don't want him to know, is right here. So Kyu, you make damn sure he never finds out this exists. Got it?

Got it Kyu.

Kyu, signing off.


	10. Chapter 10

Waking up these past few days have been one of my favorite things to do as of late. Every time I wake up, I can just feel all of the hard work I did yesterday pay off, and waking up also means I get to work harder even more. Today was cardio day, so me and Kyu were going to take a nice jog outside in the beautiful weather.

"Morning Kyu."

"Morning dude." It almost became routine. Wake up, say good morning, one of us cooks breakfast, then the days was ours.

"So Kyu, what's the overall plan for today?"

"Well, besides the jogging, I figured we would work on charm."

"Got'cha, but what exactly is 'charm'"?

"Basically, your appeal at first glance. So today, we are gonna see how well you can approach a girl with no valid reason at all."

"Okay, like I say 'hey', they say 'hey' kind of scenario?"

"Nah, more like you say 'hey' and then their panties flood like the mo'fucking Nile." I will admit, it does take some time to get used to Kyu's brash sense of humor. But once you are used to it, you find yourself laughing a lot more than wincing.

"So when do we start?"

"Well, are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" She stood up, and put herself in a stance like she was preparing to block a football tackler.

"Approach me Axel! Approach me!"

"Here I come!" I snuggled the imaginary football in my arm, and started (slowly) running towards Kyu. With my arm out extended, no other male could possibly block me from the end goal fairy. As soon as I got within arm's distance, I slowed down and stopped. Followed by a sexy lean on the wall.

"Hey baby, how you doin'?" Neither of us could help but laugh.

"Alright, for real this time."

"Okay, what's the scenario?"

"Hmm. Let's try….you see me by myself sitting on a park bench. The weather is gorgeous, but my arms are crossed over my chest, and all I am doing is looking at my feet."

"Will do." And so, Kyu went over to the couch and assumed the position. I quickly thought of something I could say, and proceeded forward.

"Beautiful day out, eh?" Kyu looked up at me, almost like she didn't know I was there.

"Huh? Oh..uh...yeah." She looked back down, giving me the sign she didn't want an ounce of interaction. But that won't stop Axel.

"A pretty girl like you shouldn't be sitting out here by herself." I took a seat next to her, but she shuffled over to the other end of the couch.

"Look, I….I just want to be alone, okay?" Normally, my manners would have caused me to leave right on the spot, but this was a girl in a time of need. Axel was here to save the day.

"No one should be alone like this on a gorgeous day. It's a day for smiling and having fun. So why aren't you smiling?" While giving me the cold hard shoulder, I could hear her say

"Well, a guy I was supposed to meet here hasn't shown up. It's been two hours already…" That was my sign to shuffle ever so closer to her.

"Two hours? You've been by yourself for two hours?"

"Yeah…that fucking asshole." I shuffled even more.

"Hey, listen. Waiting for this guy is wasting your day away." She turned around, a little shocked I was so close.

"You need to enjoy your day. Let's start with a smile. Come on." She bent her head down, trying to hide her giddiness.

"Come oooooooon." Then she giggled, followed by looking up at me with a little smile.

"There it is, there's that smile I have been looking for." Kyu then adjusted her position on the couch, sitting in an actual comfortable way. I stood up, offering my hand to her.

"Now come on, let's go have a good day." She took my hand, and I stood her up. Almost like I was about to have a nice slow dance.

"Axel, baby, you fucking killed it. You are one smooth bowl of chili I tell you."

"Smooth Chili?"

"Yeah, you may be smooth, but you are still spicy." With a playful punch of the shoulder, she offered me another high five. I gave it a good smack, and already the day was off on a high note.

"Axel, you got the posture, the looks, the vocabulary, and obviously you got the charm. As nice as being cool is, always remember. Sometimes being warm is cooler than cool." Whenever she produced something quotable like that, I always pretended to write it down in my imaginary notebook.

"Now let's go, we got some jogging to do."

We made our way to a popular park. It was about an hour away, but it was worth it. This was one of the very few places I have gone to in the past, because of how beautiful it is. It was right on the water, and there were so many beautiful trees planted around the grassy field. Every time I see it in my head, all I can think about is the smell of the breeze and the palette of colors. I could almost call it paradise.

But on the way there, we saw a few dastardly grey clouds forming in the direction of the park. The weather called for clear skies and warm temperatures, so these clouds were definitely unwelcome.

"If those fuckers ruin my jog, I'll kick their ass." I said.

"How you gonna kick a cloud's ass?"

"Badly."

We were more than half way there, so we decided to at least risk it. A few grey clouds on a nice day can doesn't always mean rain. When we got to the park, we were surprised to see the park was vacant.

"I guess those clouds scared everyone away." Kyu said.

"Well it's not raining yet, and we just drove an hour. So I'm ready to go." We parked on the far end of the park, and we started on the coast. We walked a little bit at first, just taking in time to adore the scenery.

"Wow Axel, it is beautiful." All of those different memories of the breeze and the trees came right back to me, and everything felt even more tranquil. I talked to Kyu about all the different trees they had, and all the different plaques and statues they had scattered around. This park has been here for a long time, and each and every addition meant something different. All of the statues were dedicated to war heroes, and each tree planted signified some local hero. Some trees were planted for fireman, mayors, and even a few celebrities. As a kid, I was always told something I should strive for is to get a tree dedicated to me, because then that means I made it. I don't know if I will win an Oscar or something one day, but the way my life has been improving, I feel like I could get a hundred trees.

We didn't even bother jogging, we were so taken in by the beauty of the park. But then I heard a loud crash of a wave, the loudest one of the day. I payed no attention to it, but then it happened again. And again.

"Hold on, something ain't right." I looked over the railing out into the ocean, and the ocean was going nuts. Waves were huge, and were pounding the coast hard. I looked into the sky, and it was grey.

"Why, what's up?"

"Fuck, it is gonna rain. Hard." The signs were undeniable. I looked at the trees, and the leaves were weighted down.

"We gotta go. Now."

"God damn it. I was having fun." She started going back the way we came, but I stopped her. I could already feel the drizzle, and it was getting harder by the second.

"Dude, it's gonna pour. What are you doing?" Then the thunder hit.

"Kyu, go this way. The trees will help block the rain." In the smack dab middle of the park, was almost like a forest path. The park was scattered with trees, but this path was made with nothing but two huge lines of trees on each side. If we followed the path we already took, we would get drenched in seconds. So we started down the middle path, hearing the thunder get stronger over our heads. Kyu I had in front of me, while I trailed behind. The rain was coming down at this point, but the trees did help soften the flow. We were almost there, but then Kyu reached out her arms and stopped dead on the path. I almost came to a skid to not plow into her.

"Kyu, go! What are you doing?!" But underneath her breath, I could hear her mumble.

"No….way…." I started getting extremely worried. Kyu seemed tense, and I've only seen her like that once.

"What? Is it more boys?" I could just see Kyu shake her head side to side.

"Then what is it!?" Without facing towards me, she reached for me with her arms and pulled me in front of her. In front of us, down a little ways, was a bench. The bench was glowing in the light of the lamppost right next to it. And on the bench, was a girl. A girl with her arms crossed, looking at her feet. A girl with crimson hair.

"Mega-bitch….."

"What?" Again, I could hear her under her breath.

"What the flying fuck is she doing all the way over here?!"

"Kyu, what the fuck is going on? It's pouring out, and you're freaking out over some girl! That was supposed to be my job!"

"Axel, you don't understand. We have to go back the other way, crossing her will be the death of you!" I usually trusted every word Kyu said without hesitation, but this seemed way over the top.

"Kyu, the fastest way to the car is this way. I highly doubt this girl will stop us." I looked at Kyu, and her hair. Kyu always kept her hair down now, so now her head was completely draped. She kept having to push it out of her eyes. When I saw Kyu getting soaked, I thought about the other girl.

"Damn, she is getting soaked herself. I'm gonna so see if I can help her." I could feel Kyu grasp my arm.

"Axel, no! She isn't worth it!"

"How do you know Kyu?"

"One of my past clients was with her. He was banging chicks left and right, and she was one of them. But he had to fight for her virginity like she was a pissed off lion! But if she is here by herself, then I know damn well she literally is now a pissed off lion! You can't fight back a lion Axel!" I looked back over to the girl. As much as Kyu tried to convince me, I didn't see a hostile bitch. Looking at her, she reminded me of someone. Sitting there all alone, drenching in the rain.

She reminded me of me.

"I'm not gonna let someone soak in the rain without at least trying to help them Kyu, that's the kind of guy I am."

"If you won't listen to me, you are on your own. No way in hell am I gonna let this broad see me. Hurry up!" I started walking over, and I wasn't sure if she knew I was there or not. But while I was walking, I noticed I wasn't walking normally. I was doing my 'charm' walk. And I could tell Kyu knew I was doing it. I could feel her grab my arm yet again.

"Why!? Why the charm walk!?" I thought I had to come up with some bullshit excuse, but I didn't need to. I think I already knew why I was doing the charm walk.

"Because she's cute."


	11. Chapter 11

As I walked towards her, I could start to hear the sounds of a small whimper. Behind me I could hear Kyu panicking, but nothing was gonna stop from me helping someone else in need.

"Excuse me?" I called out to her. I didn't get a response.

"I'm sorry, excuse me? Miss?" I could see her slightly turn her head, but it moved right back to its normal position before I could get a good look at her. All of Kyu's practices have prepared me for any form of a cold shoulder, so I was prepared. Instead of calling out again and wasting my breath, I decided to just sit next to her. That is when she turned around to look at me. Her eyes matched her crimson hair.

"Fuck off, okay?" She softly said to me. Usually, those kinds of words are accompanied by a snarl and an intimidating voice, but she said them in a voice that sounded so…defeated.

"No one should be alone on a gorgeous day like today. It's a day for smiling and having fun." I could hear Kyu in the distance with a giant exclamation of confusion.

"It's not a gorgeous day, fuck…er…" I could hear her sigh, almost like she knew this tough girl act was pointless.

"Look, please? Can I be alone?" She already threw off the pattern I was used to, so it was time to improvise.

"I'm afraid not. When I see someone drowning in the rain, I'd like to help them out." 'Mega-Bitch' my ass, I had no idea what Kyu was talking about earlier.

"Well, I appreciate the thought but I really-"

"What's your name?"

"Wha…huh?" She looked at me, almost stunned. I'm not sure if it was because I interrupted her, or the question came out of nowhere. But nonetheless, it worked. Just one of the many things Kyu taught me. Don't let a girl keep talking negatively, the more she has a chance to, the less chance the conversation will keep going.

"What's your name? I'd really like to know your name, since I don't think you like being called 'Miss.' So?"

"Umm…it's Audrey." Another trick she showed me. Don't think the next compliment, say it.

"That's a beautiful name. Audrey."

"Oh…um..thank you." Her cheeks started turning red, almost like her hair. I couldn't believe it. I made a girl blush! Woo-hoo!

"It fits you very well I must say. What would make it even better is if you smiled." She brought her knuckle to her lip, which was a sign of making a decision. If what Kyu told me was correct, this girl was deciding a lot of things at once. Just to name a few, she was deciding if she should keep talking to me, if she thinks I'm cute, a lot of things in that nature. The knuckle was the giveaway. But the most important part was she was deciding whether to smile or not. And she did.

"There it is, doesn't that feel better?" I think I heard a giggle.

"Yeah, thanks." Her posture completely changed, she was pretty comfortable with me already.

"So what's your name?" This is where I was told to throw a little quirkiness in. She bit the hook, now was time to start reeling her in.

"Tis I, sir Axel. At your service, my lady." This time, I know I heard a giggle.

"Axel's a cool name too." I felt on top of the world. But the best part was I didn't feel an ounce of self-doubt. I didn't think for a second I could mess anything up. Despite this cold rain, I was on fire!

"So Audrey, tell me something. A pretty girl is sitting on a bench by herself in the pouring rain, and doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon. What's up with that?"

"Well, I was supposed to meet someone here."

"Did you think the rain scared them anyway? Did they contact you?"

"No….they were supposed to be here two hours ago." Her head started to droop down. This meant some heavy emotions were coming in, and they needed support. But not emotional support though. Only physical support could hold those suckers up. I reached out my arm and slightly gripped her shoulder.

"Hey, hey. It's alright. Where do you think they are?" She lifted her head back up, and looked right at my eyes. This was her trying to confirm my intentions. Kyu told me a lot of girls can tell most of the time when men are bullshitting them. So right now, Audrey was trying to decipher if I was just a pure-hearted stranger trying to help, or a rat ready to climb into her pants.

"Axel, I would love to chat, but it is pouring out. Can we talk somewhere maybe…dry?" I guess she figured out I wasn't a rat.

"Sure, my car is in the parking lot if you wanna head there. I'll give you a ride home to."

"Okay." I offered her my hand, and helped her to her feet. We started towards my car, but I looked around for Kyu first. When I saw her, I couldn't help but laugh. I have never seen her so bewildered before. I gave her a thumbs up, and gestured for her to follow us.

When we got to the car, I could practically hear us drip, we were all so wet. Audrey was in the passenger seat while Kyu was in the back. I'm just glad I didn't have leather seats. I started the car, and turned the heat up. Once the car was at a drying temperature, I asked Audrey again for her story.

"Okay, so you were meeting someone?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, I figure I should give you a background first. I'm not from around here, I just flew in."

"Oh, you are here on vacation?"

"Nope. Came out here for a job, actually. Was promised a place to stay, and a small starting wage. I took a taxi right out of the airport, and headed to where I was supposed to go. I met up with the guy, and he gave me the rundown." But she stopped talking after that.

"And then what happened?"

"Welp, I could only get the shit I was promised if I blew him, right then and there." It didn't seem to bother Audrey, as much as it did Kyu. I could tell Kyu felt horrible for her.

"No way."

"Yup. So, I slapped him, and walked right out. But then there I was, a stupid little girl with not enough money to get back home." I could hear the volume of her voice increase, almost like the anger she felt that day was coming back to her.

"How long ago was this?"

"Three days. I was lucky enough the janitor at the community center let me in to spend the nights on the waiting room chairs. I was even able to shower there to, so at least I'm only mildly disgusting right now."

"Audrey I…" This was quickly getting out of my league. Kyu taught me how to handle girls in generic distress, but homeless girls scraping by is not one of them.

"But I was in a bar just trying to get a glass of water, and a guy liked the way I look. He told me was on break, but got out of work soon. He told me to meet him in the park, and he could help me out. And that's where you came in."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think that…"

"No Axel, I'm sorry. I'm pouring all of this shit right on top of you right after you got me out of the rain."

"Audrey, it's not a big deal at all. No need to apologize."

"So what do you want instead then?" For someone homeless, she made it seem like she had something to offer.

"What?"

"Blowjob, fuck my ass, what do you want from me?" For the love of God, Kyu help me!

"Err…I…." Okay, now the doubt and panic were kicking into overdrive.

"Axel, I don't mind. It's all I can offer, all I'm good at anyway." I looked into the rearview mirror, and it looked like Kyu was flipping a shit as much as I was. But all I could tell was she mouthing out the words 'I told you so.'

"Axel?"

"Look…uh…Audrey. I don't want anything like that from you. I just wanted to get you out of the rain, free of charge."

"Yeah, but what am I supposed to do now? Let you drive me across the city back to the community center for nothing?"

"Audrey…umm…" I looked back at Kyu, but I knew she couldn't help me. So I had to use my instinct, the one thing Kyu said she couldn't help me with anyways. Instinct was all on me. And right now, my instinct was telling me to do for Audrey what I would have wanted someone to do for me.

"How about this. If you want to, I can bring you back to my house. Food, water, heat, all of it will be given to you. You can stay there, until you find a job and get some money on you. And please, you are a beautiful girl, but that doesn't mean I want your body. If you feel so inclined to 'pay me back', you can help around my house. Clean, cook, things like that. How does that sound?" She sat in her chair, obviously contemplating.

"You aren't gonna kill me, are you?" I thought that was meant to be a sarcastic comment, but her eyes said otherwise. She really wasn't sure what my intentions were anymore. But when I thought about it, I could understand why. For the past three days, all this girl had was bullshit and scumbags. She had no reason to trust anyone. But then a 'nice guy' pops out of nowhere, and gives her an offer that is too good to be true. I would have second thoughts about that 'nice guy' myself. So, I had to reassure her. But my next few words I had to choose carefully. One little stutter, one little wrong synonym, and I could cut the wrong wire that set off the bomb. I gave Kyu one last look, just in case she had something to offer. And so she mouthed out 'Simple.'

"No, Audrey." And with that, she nodded and said

"Okay. Thank you Axel, thank you so much." And then we drove off.

On the way home, I still wanted to know her a little better. If I get her talking, that would make her a lot more comfortable.

"So what job did you come out here for?"

"I was gonna be a fashion model, actually."

"Really? Cool, like for magazines or something?"

"Depends on where I was needed. I was going to be hired by a company that handles and manages models, but that is where the first dick came into play."

"Ohh, got'cha."

"Yup. I even left school for this opportunity, and it literally blew up within the first two hours I got here."

"You left school? How did you find this job then?"

"Well, that's…." I could see her shuffle in her seat. This was obviously private information.

"Too personal? No problem."

"No, actually, I wanna tell you. I hate holding it in so long." I could see Kyu creep forward, I guess she was interested in this little story herself.

"There was this guy I met at the mall. I was just done yelling at this salon lady, but he came up out of nowhere weirdly aggressive. Not like, fighting aggressive. But the bitchy attitude I give everyone wasn't scaring him away. We ended up exchanging information, and dating. And eventually…he got me in bed."

"You don't make that sound too positive."

"Well, as it turns out, he was also sleeping with like eight other girls." Wait a second…

"All my life, I was only such a bitch because I thought there would be a white knight that would stand out amongst the rest. I was being a bitch, I was drinking and doing drugs despite how much I fucking hated every bit of it. All because I thought it would scare away all the pricks. Then this guy comes alone, and I thought it was him. But I gave my virginity to a swinger, and I guess you can only imagine what that did for my self-esteem." I thought something was fishy, and looking at Kyu confirmed it. This was the same guy that fucked up Kyu.

"It's starting to come together, I think I got it. So your self-esteem hit the wall, and you thought all you were good for was your body, right? Led you to doing some internet hunting, and a shady model job came around?"

"Axel, that's…..scary accurate. Are you sure you aren't gonna kill me?"

"Audrey, I'm just friends with a great psychologist who likes to share their knowledge sometimes. Let's put it that way." I winked in the rearview mirror, and could see Kyu wink back.

We continued having a fun conversation the rest of the way home. The storm decided to follow us as well. We got inside, and with a major case of deja-vu, I made her some coffee. In the meantime, I gave her the rundown of the house. I also decided to let her borrow some old clothes that don't fit me anymore. The shirts were still huge on her, and the pajama pants have to be tightened to the max to stay on her waist. But she said it herself

"Big clothes are comfy clothes." After the brief tour, I told her she could shower if she would like. As she went into the bathroom and I heard the shower turn on, I have been needing to talk to Kyu.

"So Kyu, what do you make of all this?"

"Well Axel, I must say I'm surprised."

"And what is so suprpsing?"

"Well, a lot of things actually. But I guess the most shocking is how you chose Audrey of all girls."

"Chose? I didn't 'choose' her."

"Axel, what you did was great and all. But don't lie to yourself. If you didn't like Audrey as much as you do, you wouldn't have given her your house. You would have worked something out, and set her up at a motel or something. Not like there is anything wrong with that."

"Even if she was a guy, I would still let her stay her. I like to help people as much as I can."

"Axel, stop denying it. There is nothing wrong with liking Audrey, just own up to it. You even said it to my face, you thought she was cute. And besides the bumps, that car ride was all you needed. Axel, she is in the palm of your hands. And from what I can tell, she wants to stay there."

"So what now? Is she my girlfriend?"

"More than likely by the end of the night."

"Wow…I…" But Kyu put her finger to my lip.

"But I'm not going anywhere just yet. As perfect as this scene may be, I am still not sure of one thing."

"And what's that?"

"I mean, she is a homeless girl after all. I just want to make sure she has genuine feelings for you, and isn't just using you."

"So what should I do?"

"All you gotta do, is let it happen. Axel, you have done your part. Now she has to do hers. Let her do what she wants to do, whether it be advances or retreats. But do not, and I repeat, do not kiss her or go anywhere beyond that. Because there is no going back after that, and we still need to confirm a few things. Got it?" She raised her hand for a high five, but instead of smacking it, I decided to give her a hug. Kyu has been such an amazing friend to me, and right now I think the love of my life is in my shower because of her. I was worried a hug was a little weird, but I could feel Kyu hug me right back.

"Thank you Kyu."

"No problem Axel." We stayed in that position, with no need to get out of it.

"Oh, but Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"Where is she sleeping?"

"Ah…fuck." We let each other go, and tried to decide where my guest is staying.

"I was just gonna give her the couch."

"Dumbass, that's where I sleep!"

"Yeah, but she is my love interest!"

"So don't you have a love interest guest bedroom or something!?"

"No! I don't think anyone does!"

"So where is this broad sleeping, on the floor!?"

"She is getting the couch Kyu, can't you use fairy powers to sleep in the air or something!?"

"Stop being racist towards fairies!"

"I can't, I had fairy slaves growing up!" This was a joke argument to start with, but that is where we both started laughing.

"So in all honesty, where do you think you can sleep Kyu?"

"When she falls asleep, I'll grab some blankets and pillows and make a bed in the kitchen or something. I do it all the time, I like doing it actually."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Now get some rest tiger, you need it."

"Will do. Goodnight."

"Night."

I could hear Audrey still in the shower, but I knocked on the door and yelled inside.

"Hey Audrey! The couch is all set up for you, okay! I'm going to bed, make yourself at home!" I could hear her yell from inside

"Okay! Goodnight!"

I made my way to the bedroom, and got myself comfortable. The rain was still coming down, but rain always made the most relaxing ambience to sleep to. It was tough, coming to grips with what Kyu said.

"Do I really have a girlfriend now?" I started whispering to myself out loud.

"She's so pretty, her personality is great, she's down to earth…wow." Even if this was a case of her using me to get a roof over her head, it was still more affection than I got my entire life. I let my eyes slowly close, letting the rain ease me to sleep. But before I could feel the deep grips of pure slumber take me, something was shoving my shoulder whispering 'Axel.'

I turned around, and glowing in the dim golden light of the lamp on my nightstand was Audrey. She was wearing one of my shirts, one that went all the way slightly past her waist.

"Hi." She said. Her voice was so soft and quiet, I almost wanted to call it adorable.

"Hey." I responded. It must have only been half an hour, but my voice was already raspy like it is when I wake up in the morning.

"Um…I hope this isn't weird or anything….but could I sleep with you tonight?" She started frantically explaining herself, something to do with the couch and feeling safe or whatnot. But I continued to just look at her, admiring her. She truly was beautiful. And if what Kyu said was correct, she was practically mine. All I had to do was let her advance, and this was it.

While she was still talking, all I did was raise up my blanket, giving her room to crawl inside. When she saw my gesture, I could see her smile. She turned off the lamp, and while facing away from me, crawled under the blanket. I didn't really plan on her getting so close to me however, but I could feel her scoot all the way to my body (despite it being a queen sized bed). Only then did I realize, she wasn't wearing pants. I could feel her bare, smooth skin on my hairy legs. I could also feel something going on right beneath my waist, and so I tucked it in my between my thighs before it poked her in the back.

She grabbed my arm, and pulled it over her waist. Here I was, cuddling a girl I just met. If I wasn't half asleep, I would be having a good panic attack right now. But instead, I was able to let it sink in how it felt. Feeling her skin, feeling her touch, it was nothing short of bliss. No words, no sounds, just the two of us. I began to question myself, if this is what love began to feel like.

My mind drifted once more, ready to completely fall asleep. But I had one more vivid thought right before I could feel my conscience shut down.

I really want to find the son of a bitch that hurt these two girls.


	12. Chapter 12

"The website said it would take all day."

"All day? Just for an interview?"

"Well, I guess they are thorough. It mentioned a lot of practice shoots and what not."

"Alright, just text me whenever you get out."

"Will do. Thanks Axel." She hugged me goodbye, and off she went into the generic corporate building. We spent all of yesterday looking for modeling agencies that didn't require blowjobs to get hired by. We found one that seemed to really adore 'colorful' human beings, and after making a few phone calls, they were more than excited to meet Audrey. I dropped her off at about noon, but apparently she wouldn't be done until around after dinner time.

When I headed home, I knew I could have expected a possible shit storm from Kyu. Since she doesn't want to be seen by Audrey (only because at this point finding I have a fairy might scare Audrey away) we have had little to no interaction at all. So after making her sleep on the floor, and then not devoting anytime to her, I wouldn't be surprised if I was welcomed by a thrown chair and not her. When I got in through the door, I yelled for her

"Kyu? I'm home!" I could hear her reply from my bedroom

"I'm in here!" Without questioning why she was in my bedroom, I made my way towards it. On my bed was Kyu, lying on her belly. And apparently looking at a porn magazine.

"Do you need some alone time…err…"

"Axel, don't you dare leave this room." She shuffled to a sitting position, and looked at me.

"So you big lug, come over here and tell me about it." She patted the area next to her, and so I accepted the invitation and sat down next to her.

"Start with that first night."

"Well, I told her goodnight and went to bed. But eventually she crawled into bed with me."

"Oooh, sexy. Did she do it last night to?"

"Actually no."

"Oh. Did you say something to upset her?"

"I have no idea. Yesterday went so well. We spent all day at the computer, laughing and talking. But when it came to bedtime, she went right over to the couch like my bed wasn't even an option."

"Axel, I think I know why." She stood up, but I remained seated on the bed.

"Why? Is my bed not comfortable?"

"Nope. Now, I'm not trying to embarrass you here, believe me. But I think it's because she had a little something something poking her back all night long." I could just feel my cheeks ignite.

"I thought I tucked it away!"

"A-ha! I didn't even have to beat it out of you." Great, now I just gave Kyu a reason to talk about my uhh….well you know.

"Axel, again. Not trying to embarrass you. It's something every guy goes through."

"Well duh, every guy gets boners."

"Yeah, but some get them for no real reason. Like you did."

"No reason? She was cuddling me with no pants on! And considering my track record, that's a huge gigantic leap."

"Yes, very true. That is why today, we are gonna practice not getting boners." This wasn't gonna end well.

"Look, as long as she doesn't do something I'm not comfortable with, or I'm wearing jeans, I think I will be okay."

"Axel, the girl digs you. She's gonna want to do uncomfortable stuff. And when a dude pops a big one for just a cuddle that can kill any chances for any nice romantic interaction."

"Okay, so how do I not get them?"

"Simple, we just gotta get your body used to it, that's all."

"Oh, is that what the porn mag is for?" I went to go reach for it, but Kyu snatched it out of my hands.

"No, that is not what the porn mag is for." I could hear her mumble under her breath something about my nerve of trying to take her porn.

"So how do we go about this?"

"Hold my hand."

"Uhh…what?"

"Hold…..my hand." She reached out her arm, waiting for me to grab it. I didn't see the point of it, so I did.

"Dumbass."

"What?"

"If your girlfriend wants to hold your hand, you are gonna hold it like that? This is romance, not a business meeting. Now do it right, interlock the fingers." Already I can feel that pinch in my pants again. This couldn't be happening.

"Hurry up! We gotta lot of work to do! Just hold my hand dammit!" In almost panic, I shifted around my hand, placing my fingers in between hers. All was calm, for a few moments. I could already feel the enormous difference of holding hands and just a handshake. I could feel so much more of skin, and her skin was so delicate. I looked at my hand, still not really comprehending what it was I was feeling. All I was focusing on was my breathing, and our hands. It was almost…one of the most euphoric things I ever felt.

"Oh jeez. This is worse than I thought." Kyu's voice brought me out of the weird trance I was in.

"What?" I could see her point down.

"Just holding hands dude, and you got a chubby harder than three month old bread." I looked down, and could see the massive lump forming like a new mountaintop. I screamed, before scuffling for a pillow to hide it. And all I could hear was Kyu laughing.

"This…this isn't funny Kyu!" She kept laughing, with no end of it in sight.

"Stop laughing! Come on, this isn't helping!" She started taking dramatically large gasps of air to help calm herself down.

"Okay…okay….I'm sorry. Whew, I needed that." She sat down next to me, but I kept shuffling around on my bed as so I wasn't facing her directly.

"I'm sorry Axel, please forgive me." I still wouldn't face her. Something about using the word 'chubby' is what kind of pissed me off the most.

"But see what I mean? That bad boy is a mood killer. So once he goes back into his shell, we will try again." All I did was grunt.

"How about this. What did it feel like?"

"Huh?"

"Describe to me in your own words what it felt like. I know I'm not Audrey, but saying it out loud will help you overcome this."

"Well…." I looked to the palm of my hand.

"It felt…unique."

"Yeah? And what else? Why was it unique?"

"Because…" I didn't have to find the words, I just had to wait for them to come to me.

"You can shake hands with everyone, but you don't hold hands with everyone. For the most part, there is only one person out there that you want to hold hands with, and vice versa. It feels…special."

"It's amazing what just holding hands can do, huh? You will find that holding hands isn't the only thing that makes people feel that way."

"Am I…just a sap?"

"No no, Axel no." I could feel her shuffle over to me and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Things like this are special, you just didn't have the chance to feel something like this until now. And that's not a bad thing, some people never feel this way."

"I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, eh?"

"Yup." I turned around, and took the pillow off.

"Okay, I think I'm ready."

"Okay, but before we try again. I'm gonna tell you something."

"What's that?"

"Now, you didn't pop a boner solely because you never held hands before. I know you didn't think this way, but your deep inner conscience did. When we held hands, your mind immediately thought this means we were going to have sex." She grabbed my hand, but didn't interlock the fingers.

"Now, before I hold your hand, I need you to do something. You need to convince yourself, this isn't sexual. Stare directly into my eyes, and occupy your brain by thinking 'I am not having sex with this woman.' Don't stop thinking that, got it?"

"I think so."

"I'm gonna be reading your mind, to make sure you are doing right. The pressure is on. Here we go." She slowly interlocked her fingers, and so I started the glare. Right into her huge green eyes, while I could feel her skin rub on the private areas of my hand. Without an ounce of hesitation, I started repeating in my head over and over.

I am not having sex with this woman.

I am not having sex with this woman.

I will not have sex with this woman.

I will not have sex with this fairy.

I don't like her.

I will not physically bang this cotton candy.

I will never even want to touch this sparkling doll.

I will not insert my wee-wee into her pixie holes.

She's ugly as fuck.

God forbid I shag this eighties rock n' roll wig

My dingus will never see the light again if it goes into this neon succubus.

Nah.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman…wait a second.

Fuck you, Kyu.

Twinkle twinkle little star.

I will not have sex with…thing

Thou shalt never engage with such…

"That's quite enough Axel."

"Sorry." I couldn't refrain my laughing, but I guess Kyu didn't find my inner distractions as entertaining as I did.

"So Axel, it's been like three minutes."

"Yeah, and?"

"You are as flaccid as spaghetti."

I looked down, and she was right. Even though she was still holding my hand, my zipper didn't even twitch.

"Wow, that easy huh?" Without responding, she lunged towards me, knocking me back on the bed.

"Pop quiz!" I was flat on my back, with her hovering above me. I could feel the weight of her legs around my hips, while her…knockers were pressed up against my chest. She didn't make it easy on me.

"Come on Axel. You know you can't resist looking down my shirt, trying to get a peek at my sexy little nips. How about when I shuffle around my hips, feeling them rub all over you." She started licking her lips, but I hopped right into my newfound strategy. It was almost like about to lose a staring contest. You are panicking, and it almost hurts. You are about to lose, but all it takes is one deep breath to regain your composure. I looked right into her eyes, and started thinking in my head. But I made a little tweak to it. To make it even easier.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

"Okay, enough with the F-bombs! You're starting to make the League Of Nations nervous."

"But hey, no chub." I raised my eyebrow in the cockiest way possible.

"I will admit, it works wonders. I guess having a potty mouth does have benefits." She climbed off of me, and we both sat right back up.

"Axel, we still have a lot of hours to go before you have to pick up Audrey. So let's not stop now."

For a few hours, Kyu just kept coming up with numerous scenarios and positions couples find themselves in. With my newfound strategy, none of them caused a stiffy. But what made it easier was eventually all of these intimate cuddles just turned into wrestling each other. So I started viewing her as more of an opponent. But in a good way.

A few hours later, I got a text from Audrey.

'Last photo shoot now. Be done in about an hour. See you then!'

"Welp, guess that's it."

"Axel, the place is only twenty minutes away. You are going so soon?"

"Yeah, I want to impress her." I pointed two fingers and clicked my tongue. Kyu chuckled, but then she said

"Hey Axel."

"Yeah?"

"You know, there is still one thing we didn't do yet."

"What, a steel cage match?"

"No you asshole. We didn't do what Audrey did to you a few nights ago."

"Oh fuck, you're right."

"So what did she do again?"

"I was almost asleep, but then she came in. I lifted up the blanket, and she slid in." Kyu gestured me to slide over on the bed.

"So, do what you did that night."

"Alright, no problem. I got this." I got under the blanket and lifted up the corner. I lowered my voice and said

"Hey baby. Is it naptime already?" I was expecting another low voiced retaliation, but I didn't get anything close to that. Instead, Kyu just stood there. And slid off her pants.

"Whoa Kyu, what the fuck you doing?"

"You said her pants were off. So, gotta make this as accurate as possible." It almost felt like against my will, but she slid right in and scooted over. The exact same way Audrey did. I could feel her legs, her hips, and her back all press against me. Without missing a beat, she pulled my arm over her waist.

I started frantically cussing in my head, almost out of self-defense. I could feel tension in my pants, but I didn't want to be defeated. I kept cussing and cussing, but I couldn't get my attention off of her body. I could feel her getting closer, but only then did I realize it was because I was the one pulling her in. My face was resting on her shoulder, and our legs were relaxed. The tension went away, but I could just tell it wasn't from the cussing. My body felt so calm, because it just felt so good. So good in fact…it felt just like cuddling with Audrey.

"Hey Kyu. How come…" but then my ring tone screamed. We both jumped out of our position, while I scrambled to get my phone. It was Audrey calling me.

"Hello?"

"Hey Axel! I know I told you almost an hour, but I'm actually all set. You can come get me now if you can."

"Oh…uh…sure. No problem. On the way."

"Great! See you soon!" She hanged up, but I just sat at the side of the bed. I turned around, and Kyu was frantically getting her pants back on.

"Hey Kyu, I…."

"Axel….I'm sorry. But, uh….here. I'll clean up, and you go get Audrey. No problem." I could almost see the embarrassment pouring out of her in every drop of sweat.

"Kyu, it's fine I'll…"

"Just go! I got this! Don't be late and fuck it up!"

"Okay….alright." I grabbed my shoes and keys, and headed out. Something was up, but I had absolutely no clue what it was. Ever since Audrey showed up, Kyu has been acting kind of strange. But then again, maybe I'm just over-thinking it.

"Eh, she probably just hates having to be invisible or something."

When I saw Audrey on the side of the road, I could see how excited she was. She got in the car and practically screamed

"I'm in! I'm hired!"

"Really? Audrey, that's awesome!" She leaned over, and squeezed me tight. All it took was one mental 'Fuck you' and I didn't feel anything down under.

"Axel, I am so happy. They said they loved me, and I'm already booked for a bunch of professional shoots."

"And no blowjobs?"

"Not a damn one. God, I'm so happy. I know I just said that, but holy fuck, I am so happy!" She started acting like a giddy teenage girl, bouncing around in her seat.

"It's all thanks to you Axel."

"Hey, no problem."

"Come on, don't be so humble. I'm only gonna get to live my life because of you. Umm…" I was driving with one hand, with my other hand relaxed on the compartment in between the two seats. I could feel Audrey place her hand on top of it.

"And part of me is hoping it's with you."

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

"Well Audrey I…." it was make or break time. She made her advance, but I had to accept it. High risk, high reward.

"I think I will like to treat you to a nice celebratory dinner tomorrow. How's that sound?" We were at a stop light, so I was able to get a good look at her. That shade of red will never stop being beautiful. I could see her smile. Her lips and everything about her face made me never want to stop looking at it.

"I think I will love that, Axel." She gripped my hand, before interlocking her fingers. The intense chill of pleasure shot up my arm, infesting it with goosebumps. Those goosebumps spread to the rest of my body.

"It's a date Axel." I guess you can call that chill of pleasure the beginning of love.

"It's a date Audrey."


	13. Chapter 13

"So Axel, where do you wanna go?"

"Well considering it's your dinner, it's up to you."

"Yeah, but I don't wanna pick something you don't like."

"I like almost everything."

"So why don't you pick one?"

"Audrey."

"Okay, okay. I guess I haven't had a nice steak in a while, so take me to the best steakhouse you guys got."

"Sounds good. When do you want to go?"

"Hmm. Does 'dinner time' sound to you?"

"That's perfect. It doesn't interfere with breakfast or lunch that way too."

"You know what, you're right. Oh, but I gotta favor to ask of you."

"Sure, what's up?"

"Would you able to take me to the store so I can buy myself a nice dress?"

"Sure, but I thought you didn't really have money?"

"Signing bonus."

"I'll shut up next time then."

It was the day after she got signed into the modeling business. After she made it obvious she wanted to be with me, it made it a lot easier for me to do the same. When we got home, we ordered a pizza and watched movies until we fell asleep on the couch. Sure, we were around our twenties. But I think it was the first real time either of us really got the chance to behave like we were in a relationship, so acting like teenagers was sort of our go to. But for tonight, we thought we would give acting like adults a shot.

Audrey went to the bathroom, so I went to quickly talk to Kyu.

"Hey Kyu."

"Hey stud. Looks like you did it."

"You mean 'we' did it."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Ha, I think I will do just that." Sarcasm never ceases to fail either of us.

"So, she needs a dress. You got a tux?"

"Yeah I….don't."

"Welp, do you want my help one last time? Or are you actually good at finding semi-decent clothes to wear?"

"Let me think…no."

"Is that a 'no' you don't want my help? Or a 'no' you aren't good at picking out clothes?"

"Clothe me Kyu."

"What's the magic word?"

"Clothe me Kyu….for fuck's sake?"

"Eh, close enough." She raised her hand, and we had one of our infamous high fives for the first time in few days. I could hear Audrey yell from the bathroom.

"Hey Axel? I'm almost done, so you can go get the A/C running in the car."

"Will do. See you outside!" Me and Kyu headed out to the car, where she gave me last minute advice.

"So here's the plan. We are going to the mall, but we aren't looking for your clothes immediately."

"Why not?"

"She says 'dress' but when a girl like Audrey says it, who knows what the fuck 'dress' means."

"Ah, got'cha. So what's the plan?"

"You blunder about the men's department, and I'll follow her around. I'm gonna see what store she picks, and what kind of dresses she's looking at. When I figure out what she's going for, I'll come back to you. That's when we find your clothes."

"Is it worth that much trouble?"

"Yes, are you kidding me? If she goes more casual, you showing up in a monkey suit is gonna make her feel like a peasant. If she decides to try a ballroom gown for the first time of her life, but you show up in a polo and jeans, it's gonna make her feel like you aren't taking it as seriously as she is."

"God damn, women should come with a manual."

"They do, why do you think I am so good at this?"

"Wait…what?" She busted into laughter before playfully punching my shoulder. We could see Audrey coming out to the car, so Kyu settled down and I assumed the position of someone who didn't have a fairy in the car.

"Alrighty, off we go. Is it okay if I DJ this time?"

"Sure, no problem." She grabbed the auxiliary cord, and we made our way to the mall. In all honesty, I assumed Audrey listened to very anti-parent punk music. But every song she played was either from the eighties or nineties, and I just happened to know the lyrics to them. I started humming along to one of them, but then I could feel Audrey pat my shoulder. She started singing, and I could tell by the way she was waving her hand, she wanted me to sing along with her. So I very quietly started singing out loud. But as the songs went on and on, Audrey started singing louder and louder. I realized as she was getting louder, so was I. I don't know why, but I felt like she was challenging me. Must be a guy thing. So when the chorus of a song came on, I surprised her by completely bellowing out the lyrics. In response, she bellowed back. There we were, two idiots singing the eighties like we were drunk Vikings. We eventually calmed down our voices, singing normally to the songs. I guess our performance wasn't so wretched, because I could see Kyu dancing along in the backseat.

When we got to the mall, me and Audrey agreed on a rendezvous point and how long until we met there. Basically, it was back at the entrance in about an hour. She headed off, and Kyu trailed right behind her. I walked my way over the section of the mall that had a lot of men's stores, and waited outside for Kyu.

"So, going on a date." I started swinging my arms back and forth, talking to myself. Loud enough to hear me, but quiet enough so no one else could.

"Audrey gonna get a dress, I'm gonna get a suit, we gonna get a steak, and then…." I quickly struggled trying to think of something to say that would make myself laugh.

"Then we gonna get a banging." As expected, my explicit use of poor grammar all leading up to a night full of hot sex got me laughing. That is all I did for about ten minutes, bumbling nonsense and chuckling along with it. I sort of walked in tiny circles, trying to make it obvious I was waiting for someone so people didn't think I was just lost. But while I was waiting, I saw a familiar face. Sulking along by himself was the boy I held above my shoulders. I could just tell he was having a bad day, and I didn't want to make it worse. I tried turning around so he couldn't recognize the guy who almost ate him. But while I was turned around, I heard a thud. After that thud, was an obviously very angry man cussing.

"What the fuck is this little shit?!" I turned around, and this huge guy was standing over that boy.

"Watch where your little punk ass is going!" The boy was cowering, and backing up slowly.

"I-I'm sorry sir….I'm really sorry…" From what I can gather, I guess the boy sulked his way into accidentally bumping the guy.

"You bet your ass you're sorry!" I could see the boy on the verge of tears.

"It was accident…I'm so sorry…" A crowd was starting to gather, almost like a fight was about to break out. The boy tried getting away, but he couldn't get past the crowd. I whispered to myself

"Come on, let him out." But everyone just started taking out their cellphones. And obviously none of them were calling for help. No matter what direction the boy backed up in, the guy followed and the crowd wouldn't let him out. I knew it must have made me a hypocrite, but this wasn't right. This guy was five times the size of this kid, and he wasn't capable of defending himself. I could feel the unsettling pain in my head return.

"No…no…not again." I clenched my head, trying to ease the pain away. Last time I felt this pain, I almost wanted to kill someone. But I didn't want to cause a scene, especially with the off chance Audrey was watching. But then, the worst case scenario happened.

The guy pushed the boy down on the ground…hard.

"Alright, fuck it." I said. I rushed my way through the crowd. The pain in my head erupted, and my veins felt hotter than fire. But I felt like part of my conscience was still with me, because I knew what I was gonna do with it. I got to the opening in the crowd. The boy was on the floor, crying. He must have landed on his face, because I could see one side of his head red and beginning to swell.

"It's not over little bitch!" the guy yelled. He almost lunged towards him, until I stepped in front of him.

"Yes it is." The big guy stopped, and the audience was immediately hushed.

"Who the fuck are you!?" I could feel my brain process my thoughts as it came up with this response.

"I'm this boy's friend, and I don't much appreciate you putting his hands on him." All he did was start to laugh.

"You his friend? Well what the fuck you gonna do about it!? This little shit wasn't watching where he was going and-" I cut him off.

"Did he apologize?"

"Wha..what?"

"Did the boy apologize?" He just gave me a bewildered look, obviously 'apologized' was too big a word for him. I turned around and faced the boy.

"Did you apologize?" The boy looked into my eyes, recognizing me. I couldn't tell if it was mostly fear or confusion I could see.

"Y….yes sir. I said I was very sorry."

"Good." I turned back around to face the gorilla.

"He said he was sorry. Now I think it would be best if we went our separate ways and-"

"Fuck out of here!" He reached for me, grabbing my shoulder with his giant palm. I could feel him push me to the side, to try to get at the boy. All I could think of was this guy just made a huge mistake. I placed both of my hands on his arm, one close to his shoulder and one on his forearm. I pushed his shoulder forward, increasing his inertia. I stretched out my leg, which then tripped him. Using his own momentum, I swung him to the ground, never letting go of his arm. With him lying on his belly, I held him down with one knee on his back, while applying pressure to his arm.

"Fuck….let me go!" If I wanted to, I could snap his arm straight from his shoulder. Just to sort of tease him, I applied a tiny bit of pressure, hinting as to what could happen if he doesn't cooperate. I could hear him grit his teeth in pain.

"I will once you apologize to the boy."

"I ain't saying shit you mother…Ow!" Another jolt of pressure.

"If you want to keep your arm in its socket, do it now."

"Okay! Okay! Okay! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Almost immediately, I got off of him and helped him to his feet. As I stood up, the pain and heat from my body felt like it was all flushed away.

"Sorry I had to do that to you. But come on man, he's just a little kid. He meant no harm." The big guy looked at me. Almost with big huge puppy dog eyes.

"I know man, I just…I get angry." I patted him on the back, and offered to shake his hand.

"We all do, it's no problem. I just didn't want to see someone get hurt." He grabbed my hand (with a very weak grip, but mind you that might have been my doing) and shook it.

"Okay. I'm sorry. And again, I'm sorry to you little man." I turned around, and the boy was on his feet.

"It's…it's okay sir. I'm sorry too." Without me having to hint at it, the big guy went over and gave the kid a fist bump. The crowd fizzled away, and the big guy went on his way.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you help me? I thought you hated me?" I looked at this kid, with his face starting to swell.

"Well…this is my way of saying sorry to you. About what happened the other day."

"Oh." He looked down at his feet, almost like something was his fault.

"Listen. I'm not proud of what I did to you and your friends. I got very angry, just like that guy did."

"I'm sorry sir." I could see his shoulder begin to jerk, which means the tears started coming in. I put my hand on his shoulder, and decided to use my humor to try and fix this.

"Hey, the only reason I got mad was because that lady was my first ever girlfriend. But I could just tell you guys were lady killers and I got a little jealous." His soft cries turned to chuckles.

"I'm an ugly mother fucker, and when handsome young gentlemen like you guys walked up, you can probably imaging how scared I got." He started chuckling some more.

"You ain't that ugly sir."

"Oh, I'm not 'that' ugly?"

"No, what I meant was…" but the both of us just started laughing. I gave him a fist bump, and sent him on his way. When I turned around to face the stores, Kyu was waiting for me. And she was giving me a very slow clap.

"Well, I do my best. What can I say?"

"Since when did you know how to takedown an angry muscle head?"

"Well ever since I-"

"Axel, that was honestly kind of a rhetorical question."

"Why rhetorical?"

"Because…I need to talk to you about that. But not now, it has nothing to do with the situation at hand. However! What we do need to focus on is getting you another pair of dark jeans and a black and red flannel button shirt."

"That's oddly specific. What did she pick out?"

"Not gonna tell you, just gonna tell you it's personality based casual."

"Did you just make that term up?"

"Absolutely. Now let's go."

After hitting multiple stores for only two articles of clothing, we had my outfit for my date with Audrey. Some expensive dark blue jeans (dark enough you could only tell they were blue if you had an industrial light on them) and a red and black flannel style button down shirt. According to Kyu, flannel style (not actual mountain man type flannel to use in the cold) is a near perfect casual choice. It is somehow nice enough to be considered a formal casual, but also shows a lot of comfort.

Audrey was at the entrance before we were, and I could see her waving me over. In her hand was a giant paper shopping bag.

"So what did you get?" She scoffed at me. I knew it was playful, but not even Kyu scoffs. I almost forgot scoffing was a thing.

"I'm not gonna show you! It's a surprise, so don't show me yours either!"

"Alright, alright. So you ready to head home?"

"Yup. Do I get to DJ again?"

"Only if you sing."

"Ditto."

By the time we got home, we had to cool down on the singing because we were losing our voices. When we got inside, we looked at the time.

"Well, we still got about two hours before we head out to dinner."

"Okay, so I'm gonna go get ready now."

"Now? Audrey, we still got two hours."

"I'm a girl Axel."

"True. True."

"So you gonna pick me up in two hours?" She winked at me.

"Absolutely. See you then." She went into the bathroom and I could hear the shower turn on. Before I even had the chance to think about it, Kyu confronted me.

"Axel, sit down."

"Okay, why?"

"It's time for the talk."

"Penises and vaginas?" I gave her a dumb look, but based on the disappointed stare she gave me, I could tell this was not a time for jokes.

"Axel, it's serious. And I don't know how much time I have. We need to talk about what happened at the mall today."

"What, the guy and the kid? I thought I did well. I saved the day, and no one got seriously hurt. What, did Audrey see me?"

"No! And thank God she didn't!"

"No? I thought seeing me be a hero would have been a good thing?"

"Axel, forget about saving the day. There is only one reason what happened today happened. And I don't mean the guy shoving the kid, I mean you getting involved."

"Kyu, how bad can it be?"

"Axel, stop playing games. This could be your downfall. It could ruin what you got going with Audrey, it could ruin the way you live your life, and it could really hurt you one day!" Kyu wasn't joking, but now I was concerned. If something this bad exists, then why didn't she tell me sooner? I didn't mean to, but I got very frustrated.

"Then what the fuck is it, Kyu!? Tell me!" At this point, I could see her almost retreat. Almost like she was second guessing this entire thing.

"Kyu, please. Don't do this to me. I need to know."

"Axel, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even brought it up."

"Kyu, please."

"No, I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't have, I just hoped and prayed it wouldn't happen again."

"Kyu, why won't you tell me?! Please!"

"Stop it Axel."

"No!" In horror, I reached for her. My voice roared, as I gripped both of her arms. I lunged at her almost like I was a lion. As soon as I realized what I did, I let go. I started shaking, I couldn't believe I just did that.

"Kyu, I….I…." I looked up at her. Despite how terrified she looked, she somehow seemed calm. She looked at my hands, so I did too. That's when I think I figured it out.

"Is that what…" I didn't want to say it.

"Am I…" I knew what it was that was wrong with me, but I felt lost without Kyu. I looked at her, needing confirmation. I looked at her, needing to know. What is it? What is inside of me that could be my complete downfall?

"Your anger, Axel."


	14. Chapter 14

"My anger?" She nodded her head.

"Axel, you were a monster. It doesn't matter if you were defending me, or that boy. You had the ability and the intention to kill." She grabbed my hands.

"But…"

"But nothing. Axel, one of these days you are going to go into that rage. And something bad is gonna happen. Something we can't fix." I immediately thought of Audrey.

"I…I can't let that happen." I looked back at Kyu.

"How can I fix it? How do I get rid of it?"

"Axel, that's the part I don't know."

"Don't know!? But, you're Kyu! You know like…fucking everything!"

"Axel, I'm sorry. But just because I understand how lonely people think doesn't mean I know how to cure someone's inner rage." I started feeling defeated already. I might as well have lost Audrey right then and there.

"Isn't there anything I could do?"

"I don't know Axel. All I can say is now that you know how big of a threat it is, just…I don't know… try to control it."

"Try to control something I can't control?"

"No, well I mean…" She let out a big sigh. I guess she really didn't know how to fix this.

"Look, Axel. Either you somehow control it, or sometime in the near future, you are going to go ape shit. And there will be a hefty price to pay, and I guess if all else fails, that will scare you to never getting angry every again."

"So what, let it happen?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Then what the fuck do I do Kyu?!"

"Stop it!" She yelled louder than I did. She let out so much breath, she had a take a few moments to recuperate. But she yelled so loud, even Audrey heard it.

"Axel? You okay?" I could hear her yell from the bathroom.

"Uh…yeah! I just uh…turned the TV up too loud."

"Oh, okay! Well, I'm almost ready!" Kyu scrambled to her feet.

"Shit, you aren't even dressed! Come on, come on!" She grabbed my arm and started pulling. She threw me into my bedroom, and I frantically started getting dressed. Once the clothes were on, I gave myself nice a bath of cologne. I stepped outside my bedroom, and I could tell Kyu approved. She growled at me like a tiger.

"Look at you. Ready to slay the girls, and enough cologne to repel mosquitos. You're ready to roll."

"Well Kyu, I still don't know about…"

"Axel." She placed both of her hands on my cheeks.

"Forget about the whole anger shit. At least for tonight. Enjoy your date, please."

"Al-Alright. I'll try."

"That a boy. Now I overheard her in the bathroom. She has a cute plan for you. Go knock on the door, tell her you will be outside. Then when you get to the car, lean on it like cool eighties dudes."

"Cool eighties dudes?"

"Like every romantic comedy ever."

"Oh, got'cha. Thanks Kyu." I walked past her, but then she slapped my ass. I turned around, and she growled again. If it weren't for the butterflies in my stomach, Id' probably tackle her.

I knocked on the bathroom door and yelled inside.

"Audrey? I'll be outside."

"Okay!" I did as I was instructed and leaned on my car. The car was running and was giving off a low hum. I started preparing myself for what Audrey was gonna look like. Was she gonna have a shit ton of makeup on, was her dress up to her waistline, etc. But then, I heard the front door close. I kept my 'cool' posture, but the butterflies didn't make it easy. Those guys were bouncing around my gut like it was a trampoline park. As I could hear Audrey get closer and closer, the clomps of her (new) high heels got louder. I had no reason to, but I immediately grew paranoid of a crotch shot. With a few more clomps, here she comes around the corner. Oh my good God on a buttery roll. I was about to go on a date with an active bombshell.

The first thing I noticed was her shoes. High heels as I predicted, but they were boots. Long black boots that reached up to her knees with thin laces in the front. That brought me to her dress. Black silk with golden regal designs, and god damn was it form fitting. That brought me to her shoulders, where I noticed a severe lack of straps (Score!). Next was her face, which was the best part. Red lips, rosy cheeks, and crimson eyes with a glittery black frame. Above her eyes were her bangs, which were in front of a large bushy ponytail that swung side to side with any little movement of her head. I had a few thoughts seeing her like that for the first time. One of them was how the fuck Kyu considered this 'casual'. The other being I was glad I was wearing jeans.

The only thing she was missing was a spotlight. I was stunned. But by her reaction, I guess she thought the same about me. I could see her giggle, followed by a pose that said 'What do you think'? I quickly waved my hand through my hair, and made my way towards her. I asked for her hand, and kissed the back of it.

"I promised your dad I will have you home by ten." She laughed and responded

"I think ten o' four will be just fine." I brought her over to the car, opened the door for her, and then closed it when she got in. We made our way to the steakhouse, while jamming to some more eighties rock. Sure we were dressed to kill, but that doesn't mean we have to act sophisticated too.

When we got to the restaurant, both of us were getting looks. The waitresses were saying hi to me, while the busboys whistled after we passed them. In all honesty, I was completely uncomfortable. Any sort of attention always make me thinks it is with bad intentions, but with Audrey's arm in mine it made it all go away. We sat down, made ourselves comfortable, and opened the menus.

"So what do you think you are gonna get Audrey?"

"Umm….the chicken sounds good."

"Dude, I thought you wanted steak."

"I was just testing you." She slightly lowered her menu, and gave me a shifty look.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." We slammed down our menus (by slammed, I mean we gently put them down. We were in a restaurant, we didn't want to be rude) and the games began.

"What's my favorite color?"

"Red."

"How tall am I?"

"Five two."

"I'm done."

"You…oh, okay." Not even five minutes into the 'actual' date and already a huge laughing fit.

"I was ready to answer like five million questions, and you just end it at two."

"I know, I know, but those are the important ones."

"Favorite color and height?"

"Umm…duh?"

"Okay then, what's my favorite color and how tall am I?"

"The letter Z, and less than a kilometer." I threw my hands in the air.

"How did you know!?" With our laughing, I could just tell all of the 'adults' in the room were judging us. We just sat there, bantering nonsense with each other until our waitress came.

"Hi, welcome guys. Hope you are having a lovely evening."

"Tis the loveliest of evenings my friend." Audrey responded. The waitress (faked) laughed.

"Very good, so what can I get you guys to drink?" I was ready to order a soda for myself, but I could see Audrey give me a sinister glare.

"Yes Axel. What would I like to drink?" I gave her a glare back, ready to make her regret that decision.

"For myself, I will just have a Coke no ice. And for the lady, she would love a kid's sized pink lemonade." I could hear Audrey struggle not to burst.

"Umm…" the waitress was dumbfounded.

"Axel! How did you know that was my way of ordering an orange soda?"

"You doubt my powers?"

"Wait…so you want a kid lemonade, a coke no ice, and a-" Audrey cut her off.

"No, I'm sorry. He's being a jerk. Just the coke and an orange soda please."

"Alright." I felt kind of bad. Me and Audrey were just having some fun, but we were involuntarily making this miserable waitress even more miserable.

"And are we ready to order our food?"

"Not just yet, we need a little more time." I told her. Only then did I realize me and Audrey barely looked at the menu before ensuing in our shenanigans.

"No problem. Be right back with the drinks."

So me and Audrey coursed over the menu, deciding on an appetizer to share, and our entrees. We figured since we both wanted steak, we should get some different kind of meat for the appetizer. So we agreed on chicken fajitas. The waitress gave us our drinks, and we placed our order. Now the waiting game for the food.

"I wonder why she gave us so many straws?" Audrey asked. I ripped off one end of the paper wrappings and blew into it, shooting the paper at Audrey.

"That's why." In all honesty, I don't even know why we had so many straws. But I decided to make the best of it, and I started another war. Back and forth, more and more wrappers went a flying. When we ran out of straws to unwrap, we just started balling up the wrappers and throwing them at each other. We only stopped because one of them went over to the next stall.

Soon, our chicken fajitas came. Along with them came multiple dipping sauces. For some reason, Me and Audrey declared certain flavors our own. And so we fought each other, trying to dip our fajitas into the other's sauce. I figured I could beat the system, and dumped my sauce into hers. That was our peace treaty, a delicious concoction of marinara and honey mustard. Our playful little fights lasted all the way until the main courses made their way to our table. That is when things started to slow down as we took our time to enjoy our food.

"So Audrey." Even though she was chewing a hefty amount of medium rare ribeye, she responded

"What's up?"

"Did you always want to be a model?" She raised her index finger, so I gave her a second to swallow.

"Not really. The modeling thing really only came up recently."

"Oh yeah, the dick. Didn't mean to bring that back up."

"No no, it's fine. It's like you said the first day we met. My esteem hit the fan, and I thought only my body could make me money."

"Well, there a lot of worse things you could have tried to be."

"Exactly. I only chose model because I thought that I could be kind of good at it. And when I thought about it, I didn't have to be a model forever. If I become good enough, that could get me to where I truly want to go. That's the way I looked at it. I'm pretty, so I'll get my pictures taken. And when I am rich and famous, do whatever I want."

"That is one hell of a solid plan. And the first couple steps are already taken."

"Yup. So what about you then? What do you do, anyway? If you don't mind me asking."

"Eh. I'm an editor. The publishing company I work for pays me to edit shit from books, to magazine articles, to even catalogs. I get paid for the individual jobs, but if business is slow like it has been, I'm under contract for a small weekly wage."

"Wow, despite how awesome that sounds, it sounds like you can get fucked over pretty bad."

"It's all in that one word, contract. If they let me go, I have every right to sue them for a lot of money. It basically says that if business is slow, it isn't my fault, so I still have to get paid. The only way they can safely get rid of me is if one of the higher ups starts editing all of this shit himself. And you can guess how many times that has happened."

"That seemed almost rehearsed."

"Well, no one ever asked me before."

"Oh, Axel." She placed her hand over mine, I guess her pity was genuine.

"So now I gotta ask, did you always want to be an editor?"

"Nah. The money was just so good and easy, I had to take it."

"So what did you always want to do?" I thought about it, but this time I didn't have an answer. I have been so preoccupied these past few years with…wait…why am I only thinking this? You are sitting in front of the girl of your dreams, don't think, talk!

"I guess I don't really know. I got the job a few years ago, but ever since then I've been very lonely. I have been focusing on the wrong kind of goals, and not even what I want my own goals to be."

"What do you mean 'wrong kind of goals'?"

"Women I guess. And paying the bills." She leaned back into her seat.

"Women and bills, huh? There isn't something….I don't know…you wanna do with your life?"

"The only goal I really have is to make others happy." I could see her smile.

"Well, for what it's worth, you've done it so far. You've done a damn good job." I chuckled, but that comment really had me at a loss of words. I wanted to thank Audrey, but simply saying 'thank you' didn't seem like it was enough.

"You know Audrey, I…I uh…."

"Yeah?" For fuck's sake, this was the wrong time to get choked up. She started leaning in, thinking what I was about to say would change her life. I guess what I wanted to say was something on the borders of I lo…uh, like her a lot. But I didn't have the stones, so instead I just bluttered out

"I could really go for their chocolate cake. I hear it's the best in town." She leaned back in her chair, I guess she was disappointed I didn't say what she wanted me to say.

"Oh really? The best you say?" She licked off her fork (kind of seductively might I add) and said

"I guess I got room in the tank. Let's do it." The waitress came around and took our order for the cake. But before she left she told us

"Hey, I can get you the cake no problem. But we are currently serving a large birthday in the back, so our chefs are unfortunately very busy with their orders. Is it okay if the cake takes a few minutes?" This was perfect. It gave me more time to talk to Audrey.

"Oh, absolutely. Take your time with it, we have all night."

"Great, thanks. I'll be back with the cake." She left, and it was just me and Audrey again.

"So Axel."

"Yeah?"

"I think you have a decent idea about my previous love life, but I know absolutely nothing about yours. You said one of your goals was women, so how did that work out?" Well, I mean it probably wasn't the worst question she could ask.

"Well basically I haven't had a love life yet. I kept to myself all throughout school, and my job doesn't require the most human interaction."

"So what, you never had a girlfriend?"

"That is the very simple way of saying it, yes."

"Bullshit."

"Bullshit?"

"Axel, you have more manners than British royalty. You could probably be a model yourself. And you have a sharp tongue that could even make a succubus blush. How in the hell am I supposed to believe you have never had a girlfriend?" Well, better late than never.

"Well…what if I told you a love fairy helped me out? Trained me to be the best lady killer in the country." She couldn't help but laugh hysterically.

"Well, I guess I would say he or she did a damn good job at that."

"Awesome. I'll let her know when we get back." Audrey continued to laugh at it. I did too, but only because of how ironic the situation was.

"So is she the one that made you come up to me in the park?"

"Well in all honesty, she was telling me not to."

"Really?" She gave a sly look, humoring me like I was little boy telling a farfetched story.

"So why did you come up to me?"

"Because you were cute."

"Aww, Axel." I could see her blush, and look away. It was a cute gesture, but I don't know why she was blushing. I think it is safe to say we were practically dating at this point, so how come me calling her cute was a big deal?

"Well. You're pretty cute too. Maybe not cute, as much as you are handsome."

"Aww, shucks." I wrapped up my hands and did the best cartoon character laugh I could. It didn't take much to make this girl laugh, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I loved hearing her laugh. Every time she laughed it came right from the heart, and they were so pure and full of joy.

"Plus a sense of humor to boot, I am stunned girls aren't crawling all over you."

"I guess they know they can't handle this amount of pure man."

"Well it brings up the question, what isn't perfect about you?"

"Huh?"

"You know, if you were to have one flaw, what would it be?"

"Like, what's wrong with me?"

"You could put it that way, sure."

"Oh, umm…" Ah, crap. I didn't want to think about it all tonight, but now she is practically begging me to confess to her my ability to go ape-shit. I had to make a huge decision, right here and right now.

Do I tell her? That might scare her away though, she could think she is in danger. But if I tell her the truth, she will be a lot more understanding if or when it does happen. I guess she could prepare herself for it.

But do I not tell her? She seems so happy with who I am, I shouldn't tell her she is on a date with Mr. Hyde. But the worst thing I can do is lie to her, and if or when it happens, she will know I lied to her.

In the end, I had to choose the truth.

"Well, I do have an anger management problem."

"Really, that's all? Axel, everyone gets angry. That isn't a flaw."

"No Audrey, umm…like…"

"What, is it that bad? Like, medication is needed kind of bad?"

"No, not that either. It's more like, a scary blind rage I guess. It has only happened so few times, but umm…bad things have happened."

"Like what?" Like what? She asked me like what? Is she even more interested?

"Well, everything goes white and when I come back, most of the time I already really hurt someone."

"Damn. Have you ever gotten in trouble for it?"

"Actually, no. I'm not proud of it, but every time it has happened, I was usually defending someone. But I hate that feeling of getting so mad that I-" She reached over the table and shushed me with one finger.

"Then I have nothing to worry about, do I?" I looked at her with concerned eyes. I knew she wasn't fully getting the threat of my anger. She probably thought my anger just means white knight mode. I wanted to her to understand the danger of it. I was ready to tell her that I have the potential to hurt her, but as I stared at her, she stared at me. Her eyes were so warm and open. With just that stare, it's like she was telling me it's okay. Her eyes weren't concerned, they weren't worried, they were just calm. That made me realize.

There is nothing in this world that could make me hurt this girl.

When she sat back down, the cake arrived. A giant mass of unhealthy ingredients covered in more liquid unhealthy ingredients. But God damn did it taste good. Me and Audrey attacked it with our forks, with no mercy. At one point, some fudge found its way on Audrey's finger, which then found its way onto my nose. And it just so happened coincidently there was some fudge on my finger, which got onto Audrey's nose. By the time the waitress came back with the check, half of the cake was on our faces. If she wasn't before, she was definitely judging us now.

I covered the bill (after verbally fighting Audrey about it) and we made our way home. We were both stuffed and tired, we just enjoyed the car ride. The moon was out, and the air was warm. Every now and then, me and Audrey were steal glances at each other. Not saying anything, just a quick look followed by a smile.

When we got home, I turned off the car and made my way to the front door. But before I could unlock it, Audrey grabbed my wrist.

"Hey, Axel."

"What's up?"

"Umm…" She let go of my wrist, but then brought her hands to her waist. She looked nervous.

"I just wanted to say thank you. For umm…the best night of my life."

"Audrey, it was my pleasure. This was the best night of my life too." She looked up at me, but oddly didn't have any clear expression. Without saying a word, she opened her arms and came closer. She wrapped herself around me, with her face buried in my chest.

"Thank you. Thank you." I took my arms and wrapped them around her. One arm was behind her back, pulling her in closer. The other was stroking her hair. We swayed side to side for a little bit, soaking it all in. I could feel her pull back, but she kept her arms around me. She once again looked up at me, but this time I could see some kind of intention in her eyes. I didn't know what it was, until she started bringing her face closer to mine.

"Axel…" she whispered. Her eyes began to slowly close, and without having to tell my body to do so, I did the same. My eyes were closed, and my face was gliding towards her. I knew what was about to happen, but I didn't know what to expect. It mustn't have been that long, but it felt like I could count the seconds until it happened. Closer and closer. We were about to seal the deal, it was about to come to a close. But then, something roared from her purse. It was her ring tone.

Even though they weren't together, I could feel her face pull away from mine.

"Fuck, why?!" She started scrambling through her purse, trying to find her phone so she can shut it up. But right after the tone ended, she found it. Within a few seconds, a different tone played. Whoever called her left a voicemail. She took a few moments to look at her phone. At first she didn't react. But then I could see her face turn to one of dread.

"Audrey? Audrey, what's wrong?"

"No..no no no no no…" She started shaking her head. Whatever it was, it was bad news.

"Audrey, please. Tell me what's going on."

"Him." She mumbled under her breath.

"Him? Who's 'him'?"

"Why…how!?" I went over to her to try and comfort her. She began to flip out, her legs weren't holding up on the heels anymore.

"Audrey, please tell me. What is going on?!" She sat down on the grass, staring at nothing. She started rubbing her legs and began to shake. It was like she just saw a ghost.

"He found me…he's coming." I couldn't take this pronoun game anymore.

"Audrey, who is he? Who's coming, tell me! Please!" Without looking up at me, she softly whispered one more time

"Him." All of a sudden, it clicked. I stood up, and couldn't believe what I just heard. I thought of Audrey, and I began to think of Kyu. Then I thought of their stories, and their ordeals. Both of them were ruined by one thing, the same thing. Their lives were thrown into spirals of horrible decisions and low self-esteem, all because of that one thing.

And he was coming here.


	15. Chapter 15

I was able to calm Audrey down and get her to fall asleep. But me and Kyu had a lot to plan out.

"Kyu, how in the hell did he find her?"

"Axel, that's my fault."

"Your fault? What did you do, tell him?"

"No! Hell no! I…just forgot to take his Hunie Bee when I was done with him."

"His honey…what?"

"It's this thing I give most guys when I help them out. It lets them track certain girls and keep up with them and what not."

"Track girls? Don't you mean stalking?"

'We don't like to call it that, but yeah, pretty much. It's not as dangerous as it seems because we make sure we don't give it to violent people, and we always take them back once they don't need them."

"Well Kyu, looks like you fucked up bad giving it to this guy."

"I know, I know. But please don't rub it in." I started pacing back and forth, extremely concerned.

"Well whatever. What do we do? Can we try to hide her? How accurate is this thing?"

"That won't work, this thing is precise. Since he is using the Bee to find her, he already knows this exact address. No matter where she goes, he will know."

"Fuck!" I was tempted to punch the wall, but I didn't want to disturb Audrey.

"Kyu, how do we get rid of him?"

"I don't know. All I know is we send him back from where he came from, and take away his Hunie Bee."

"Well no shit, but how the hell do we convince a guy that has the world's sharpest tongue to do anything?"

"Axel, you are asking way too many questions. I understand you are worried about Audrey, but we have to take this one step at a time."

"Kyu, I don't know the first step to take." My legs were already sore, so I had to sit down. Now it was Kyu's turn to pace back and forth.

"Our words aren't gonna do shit. Should we contact one of his other girlfriends? Can they help?" I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas.

"No. All of them are under his spell of some sort. Except me and Audrey. But the both of us are scared shitless of him."

"Well, just what about the police? He is stalking, that is a big crime."

"We have no proof of that. His Hunie Bee won't show any evidence, it's designed that way. Plus, there isn't enough textual proof either. I already know he probably deleted the messages."

"God damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it." I held my face in my palms, I was lost. I don't know this guy, and he doesn't know me. But I have no idea how to defend Audrey and Kyu, that's why I felt so hopeless. I might as well be scared shitless of this guy too.

"Well, do we know when he is coming?" I asked Kyu. If we had to defend ourselves somehow, might as well see how much time we have.

"Tomorrow. We can expect him around sunset."

"Alright. Maybe I will buy some cameras, set them up at the front door, and see if he pesters us. I can try a legal thing there perhaps under harassment."

"Axel, we can't go to the police for this. He is a master manipulator, he can somehow convince the police or even Audrey to sway things in his favor no matter what."

"What the fuck does he want with Audrey? Why is he coming all the way across the God damn country?!"

"Axel, I don't think it's just Audrey. Both of us are here, he is tracking both of us. Bastard probably wants a threesome or something." I completely forgot Kyu was as in just as much danger as Audrey.

"Well then Kyu, I'm gonna do my God damn best to protect both of you. I swear." I stood up, and went over to hug Kyu. I could tell she was just trying to be brave for my sake, but I knew this was too much for her. I stroked her hair and held her close. Only after I hugged her, did she begin to softly cry.

"Everything was going so great. Now this."

"Shh, shh." I held her tighter. Never before was I ever responsible of keeping others safe. But now, I was the only thing that could protect two of the most important people in my life. No matter how much doubt I felt, I still felt a weird sense of determination.

"Kyu, I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. But I need you to trust me."

"I already do Axel."

"In that case, tomorrow, I want you to introduce yourself to Audrey. Don't mention the whole love fairy thing, just make it seem like you are a friend of mine that also hates this douche."

"Axel, why?"

"Because we have a much better shot against him if we all do it together."

"I guess that makes sense. Will do."

"Okay. Now we should both get our rest. We have one hell of a day tomorrow."

"Okay. Goodnight." We went our separate ways to our bedrooms. Audrey was dead asleep on my bed, so I did my best not to disturb her while I got in myself. I got in slowly, and when I was under the covers, I reached over to cuddle against her. Her body formed to fit under my arm, and that was how we slept. No matter how level headed I was to Kyu, and how safe and calm I felt holding Audrey, I was scared out of my mind.

I had a lot to lose right now. All of the progress me and Kyu made would be for naught. I could possibly lose Kyu through this guy's manipulation. All of the memories and interactions with Audrey, would all I would have left. This shithead could also steal back the woman I went to bed with. The possibilities and the chances were enough to frighten me, but they weren't the only thing on my mind.

What made it all worse was I didn't know if I could prevent it. I could lose everything because I was a coward, and the disappointment would be unbearable. There was only one good thing that could happen tomorrow, and I had to go all in. Either I won the game, or I was soon to be the first one out.

I woke up the next morning, and Audrey wasn't in bed. I could hear talking coming from the kitchen, but it seemed joyful.

"Looks like those two are getting along just fine already." I grabbed some pajamas, and went out to the kitchen. At the table were Audrey and Kyu, laughing away.

"Hey guys, good morning."

"Morning Axel." Audrey replied.

"Hey Axel, how come you never told me about Kyu? This chick is incredible." Kyu responded for me.

"Ah well. Little Axel here probably didn't want any competition for you." With a laugh, Audrey said

"Well, had I met you sooner, I don't even think there would be one." We all had a good laugh before starting breakfast. We enjoyed our pancakes and hash browns like there wasn't any worries on our minds. But before breakfast was over, I had to address the elephant in the room.

"Look guys, I'm glad we are all getting along. But what are we gonna do about this guy?" Immediately, the smiles turned to frowns. It wasn't a pretty thought, but we couldn't pretend like it wasn't gonna happen.

"Umm, Axel…"

"Yeah Audrey?"

"Should we just…call the police?" Kyu stepped in.

"Sorry honey, we can't do that. Me and Axel discussed it last night. But I did think of one thing though that I think we can try."

"What's that?"

"Well, this guy is good. We know he is here for me and Audrey. So how about, we meet him at neutral ground. Like, the park or something. That way, if anything goes down, hopefully there are witnesses to back us up. Plus, he won't know what your house or street looks like Axel." Everything Kyu just said sounded solid.

"Sounds good to me." I said, and Audrey nodded. Audrey took a swig of orange juice, before asking

"Well, has he texted you Kyu? Do you know when he is coming?"

"Sunset. We will head out of here early enough to make it to the park so he can't get the jump on us. Oh, and Audrey. Me and you have to look as bummy as possible. So don't even change."

"I won't protest, but why?"

"Anything that could help, no matter how little, will help. If we try to make ourselves look as least desirable as possible, that will be one more push to get him out of here. Which means Axel, you gotta look snazzy. Make it obvious you are the competition." I gave her a thumbs up.

"Anything else guys?" Me and Audrey took a few moments to think of any other questions. I had none, but Audrey had a good one.

"Well Kyu, you are the mastermind here. Who does what?"

"Simple. Audrey, sweetheart, you do absolutely nothing except stand tall. Try to make it obvious as you can you are no longer intimidated by him. While for me, I'm gonna get back what he owes me, and that it's for me. Which means Axel, you do all the talking."

"Me? Kyu, I don't know if I can-" But I quickly felt Audrey's hand on my wrist.

"Yes you can Axel. I know you will do whatever it takes to get this asshole off our backs. I know you can do it." She looked at me with an unbreakable stare.

"I know you can." I didn't need to say a word, because Audrey convinced me right then and there. I nodded back to her, and we were ready.

We spent most of the day watching TV. All we wanted to do was relax, and not stress ourselves out. If we got ourselves worked up, things can so sour extremely fast when the time came to confront him. Whether it be say the wrong thing, or act too brashly. It came to about six o'clock, so it was time to head out. We all got in the car, and made our way to a nearby park. It was small, so that's why we hoped it would mean it was crowded. But as we pulled up, we saw no one there.

"Shit." Almost all of us whispered at the same time. But it was too late now to turn back, we didn't want him knowing where we lived. (We counted on him not marking down the address while it was available.)

There we were, staring out over the fence at the golden sun slowly sinking into the horizon. It sucked, because I wish we could have watched it on better terms. I was in between Kyu and Audrey, and both of them were holding one of my hands. But only Audrey's fingers were interlocked.

Nothing but deep breaths occupied us. We were all ready, but still petrified, of when he showed up. But of course, it had to happen sooner or later.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Never before has a voice been so cold, it made me shiver. Hand in hand, we all turned around. There he was, walking towards us with his hands in his pockets. Nothing about him seemed special, except his posture. The way he walked was eerie, the way his back was arched was frightful, and his grin was conniving.

"It's been a long time you two. I still don't know why you ever left without me." He continually made his way towards us, never stopping his steps. I could feel Audrey's grip tighten extremely. Either she was angry, scared, or both. But the three of us stood together like a barricade, almost like we intended on not letting him through.

"The gifts, the dates, the attention, even the love. And here I find you, in some city with some new guy." We let him get closer, only so Kyu was able to snatch the Hunie Bee whenever he presented it.

"But hey, it's all good. We are together again, aren't we?" One thick breeze flew by, almost like it was bringing him to us. It brought him right in front of us, just a couple arms lengths away. Audrey was silent, Kyu was steady, and I was prepared.

"Look, fella. I know they probably never told you about me, so I'm not mad. Not mad one bit. All I need from them is a little alone time." Not today 'fella', not today.

"Unfortunately, you aren't going to get that alone time."

"Come on, you are treating like this some sort of standoff. We are both calm, cool, and collected guys. No need for this drama, can I just talk to these girls? Please? That's all."

"Listen my man, I appreciate the level head. But I have heard a lot about you actually. That's why I would appreciate it even more if you just turned around and left these girls alone for good."

"Hmm." I could hear him mumble under his breath. But then, he obviously turned his attention towards the girls, avoiding my eyes completely.

"So, girls. It's not okay for me to see some women on the side, but here you both are straddling the same guy at the same time. I'm starting to think I ain't the bad guy here."

"You'd best be damn sure you are. Buddy boy, if you know Kyu, that means at some point you were a hopeless little boy yourself."

"You are absolutely correct good sir. And it's because of that little pink haired wonder right there that I got every ounce of pussy I ever wanted, including the little twats holding onto you for dear life! Now don't you for a second think you ain't no different."

"Me? No different? Man, I couldn't be happier I am nothing like you."

"Oh really? So you telling me you 'care' for these girls? Huh? You 'love' them? Bullshit. You just want to be the hero until these girls feel obligated to suck you and fuck you at the same goddamn time!"

"Have you looked in a mirror lately? I'm afraid what you are describing is your own fucking self, shithead."

"You ain't a tough guy, boy. Girls don't fuck me because they feel obligated, girls fuck me because they know my cock is goddamn ecstasy. Ask either of them, go ahead. Ask them how good it feels to feel my seed inside of them, or how smooth it feels running down their goddamn throats." Audrey's grip was getting tighter and tighter.

"I don't need to ask that question. Because they already told me how scary it is. You are nothing but a monster, taking advantage of beautiful women, because you wouldn't be able to hold onto them just being yourself. Because no woman wants to fuck some pathetic little boy."

"If you got something to say, say it. Don't feel like you have to hold back your tongue, because I wanna hear what the fuck you got. Because so far, I'm not impressed."

"I could care less."

"Ooh, I'm so scared. Ooh, I'm so offended. Dude, I could sneeze and it would knock you over. Keep up this charade all you want, these girls are coming with me. A real man." Then he started walking closer. But we all eased up, because this means our plan so far worked. I successfully provoked him, so now it was Kyu's turn to snatch the Hunie Bee.

"You wanna see something? Look at this, guy." He pulled it out of his pocket, and up came a screen of all different girls.

"See these? All these girls? Mine. Every single one of them, and the reason for that is be-" even I didn't see this coming. Right off the bat, with no hesitation, Kyu reached for the Hunie Bee. He didn't even have a grip on it yet, so she swiped it with absolute ease.

"You fucking bitch!" He lunged towards her, ready to take it right back. We didn't plan this far ahead, so now I had to improvise. And I know the last thing I would allow to happen is letting this guy get close to Kyu. I had to let go of Audrey to step in front of him. I only had a slight height advantage, but I was still able to block him easily. I put my hand on his shoulder, and started pushing him back.

"Get the fuck off of me! Get the fuck off!" He swiped at my arm, knocking it off. He then followed up by pushing my chest with both of his palms, knocking me back.

"That's it, come on bitch! You wanna be a tough guy? Huh?" I could see him get into some dumb boxing-like stance. Even I could tell this guy had no fighting experience. I didn't know what to do next, I'd rather not start swinging fists I myself don't know how to use. So I just took a stance that I thought would prepare me for some kind of attack. He stepped towards me, intent on something. But I could feel something on my arm before he got to me. It was Audrey, trying to drag me away to prevent a fight.

"Axel, it's over. Come on." I looked at her and smiled. She was right, we got the Hunie Bee, and that was the main objective. Plus, it was clear Audrey and Kyu weren't intimidated by him anymore with me at their side. I kept looking at her face, satisfied it was still mine. But then, I could feel her yelp in pain.

"Nope, not gonna happen little slut." That bastard reached over, and grabbed a handful of her hair while I was distracted by adoring her face. Seeing her struggle, with him gripping her, made every ounce of blood in my body boil. It was coming, and I knew I couldn't stop it. I could hear Kyu yelling my name, but I couldn't tell why. My blood got hotter and hotter, and my head has never been in such excruciating pain. A monster was hurting my Audrey, so I had to become a monster myself.

With almost like a roar, I lunged towards him. I could see his face freeze in fear. The blood in my right arm was so hot, I could feel my skin stretch as I tightened my hand into the heaviest fist I have ever made. With nothing but aggression serving as my only emotion, my heavy fist crashed into his head. It sent him flying to his back, knocking Audrey loose. I couldn't tell where she went, but I didn't care. I just wanted to hurt this cock sucker.

I pounced on him, gripping his collar with one hand, holding up his head. I could see the blood rain from his mouth, but I felt the strangest unsatisfaction, because it wasn't enough blood. With an even heavier fist, I aimed for the bridge of his nose. I could hear the cartilage crackle, as another storm of dirty crimson flowed through his nostrils. This knocked his head back, so I pulled it right back up. One more fist, except this time I swung horizontally. Hitting him almost next to his forehead, his face swung to the left. When it came back, I could see his eye swell to a dark purple. I punched so hard and so fast, I needed to take a quick breather. This gave him time to beg through swollen lips.

"Please…I'm sorry…please…" I stood up, but not because I was done. I stomped on his stomach, curling him up in pain. He heeled over to his side, gripping his abdomen. This is when he began to scream. But I kicked him again, right through his hands to his stomach. Once more, and once more.

"You….fucking…cunt!" Every word, was one more kick to his abdomen. Just like with the punches, the kicks required some more stamina. The few seconds were filled with his screams, and desperate gasps of air. The heat in my veins began to feel pleasurable, while the sights and sounds of his battered body occupied my head, easing the pain away. I wanted one more, one more little taste of violence. I kicked him over on his back, stretching out his arm. I raised my foot, with great intentions. But then, I heard her yell. It was Audrey's voice. She was yelling the same word, over and over again. But I didn't know what it was, but I also didn't want to stop. I convinced myself it was for her, which is why I shouldn't stop. With a small jump, I brought my heavy foot down, aiming for his vulnerable forearm. I anticipated what could have possibly happened, and I was so anxious to feel it. But then, right before the impact, I heard her yell one more time.

"Axel!" But it was too late.

With a horrifying snap, his bones broke in two. His arm was now bent, just like his cries. I lifted my foot, and it all went away. The pleasure, the anticipation, especially the heat. All of it was nothing but remorse now, nothing but fear. I fell to my knees, I didn't even have the strength to apologize. I had to watch him roll and struggle, wailing in agony. I wanted to help, but I caused this…I did this to him. I looked at Audrey, thinking she could somehow make it better. But all she did was look at me, with fear in her eyes. She didn't say anything, all she did was turn around and run.

"Audrey! Audrey!" She ran away from the sunset, running deeper into the oncoming darkness.

"Audrey please! I'm sorry!" She ran as fast as she could, and I was too sore to keep up.

"Audrey, please!" I had to watch her get further and further away, because I was too pathetic to catch her. I collapsed on the sidewalk, feeling the pavement tear the skin on my knees. Right before she vanished, I could hear her yell

"Stay away from me, you monster!"

My breath was too heavy. My chest couldn't keep up, I was suffocating myself. I was trying to breathe, but my cries took every ounce of air I could gather, and brought them right back down splashing on the sidewalk. The knuckles on my right hand hurt, and were covered in blood, and it wasn't mine. My toes felt broken, and my shoe felt loose. Moving killed me, breathing killed me, and even trying to think killed me. I wanted to die.

I heard the screeching of tires pull up next to me. I immediately assumed the police, but I could hear vocal breaths, and they were Kyu's. She didn't say anything to me, or if she did, I couldn't hear her. I kept looking down at my hand, feeling disgusted. But as I tried to stay still, Kyu was pulling and pushing me towards the car. My entire vision was blurry, everything was just blurs of color, except for my fist. I didn't even have the strength to curl up my fingers anymore, so all I was looking at was an open palm. An open palm I wish I didn't have. Before I could think of anything else, I faded away to sleep.

Everything was black. My mind was empty. No sounds, no sights, no smells. That was all I wanted to feel, was nothing. If I only can stay like this forever.

But then, I heard voices. Two voices I knew well. One was Kyu's the other's was…mine. I looked for the voices, and in the black, they weren't hard to find. There we were, the both of us at the kitchen table, enjoying breakfast. It was surreal. Watching a moment of my life, like it was some scene in a movie. We were talking about finding the right girl. I remembered this conversation, so I must have been watching a memory. Myself in the memory asked Kyu

"Kyu, how will I know I found the right girl?"

"You will only know the last possible second."

"The last second before what?"

"Before the first kiss, the most important kiss of all."

"Geez, isn't that kind of risky?"

"Kind of. But it's the only sure-fire way of knowing."

"Okay. So how will the second before the kiss let me know the girl I am about to kiss is the right one?"

"When you reach in, you will close your eyes. When you close your eyes, that is when you are waiting for the kiss to happen. And in those brief seconds before the kiss, you will relive every memory you have with that person up until that point. You will see the day you met, the ups, and the downs. Everything will be seen and remembered. It's sort of like your mind making a scrapbook. The memories with this person are the ones you want to keep, and only your mind will know. The last thing you will see before the kiss are their eyes. And that's because those eyes are looking at the same memories as you. That's how you know you are meant to be together."

And just like that, they faded away.

That is when I woke up. I was on the couch, next to Kyu.

"Axel, you okay?" I struggled responding. I still felt kind of weak, plus I just didn't know what to say.

"It's alright, you don't need to say anything. I'm not sure how much you remember, so I will fill you on just the basics. The guy grabbed Audrey, and you went ape-shit. You brutally attacked him, ending with breaking his arm. It scared Audrey, and she ran off. I found you collapsed on the sidewalk, got you into the car, and took you home."

"Where's…Audrey?"

"I…don't know. It's the next day Axel, you slept throughout the rest of the entire night. She never came back, I don't know where she is."

"Fuck…fuck…"

"Axel, listen to me. When it comes to him, he's gone. Believe me or not, my boss is a goddess so she healed him. She threatened him to not press charges and to never come near us again, so we are all set."

"Audrey…Audrey…"

"Axel…stop." I starting to wake up more and more. My head hurt like hell, but so much sleep I guess calmed me down.

"Kyu…help me find Audrey. She can't…be out there on her own. I need her Kyu…I need Audrey." I stood up, ready to head out and search for her. I didn't know or care what time it is. But right as I got to the front door, Kyu blocked my path.

"Kyu, I'm feeling better. Please."

"It's not that Axel."

"What is it then? Come on, I need to find Audrey!"

"Forget about Audrey, Axel."

"Wha…what?"

"She left you. She didn't understand you." She lowered her head, hiding her eyes underneath her bangs.

"She…she…abandoned you. Even though all you did was protect her." I could see her fists clench. The struggle in her voice was her getting angry herself.

"Axel…I won't leave you like Audrey. I'll…I'll…" I had absolutely no idea what she could be talking about. But I couldn't interrupt her, mostly because I don't think I had the strength to. But after a few more moments of struggling, she spoke.

She spoke something that changed my life, yet again.

"I'll love you, Axel."


	16. Chapter 16

"Kyu, I don't understand."

"What's there to get?" Here I was, ready to chase after the girl of my dreams. But then, another girl tells me she loves me right before I get out of the door. It goes without saying my head was a fucking zoo right now.

"Axel, you are the most amazing man I have ever met. And if Audrey is too scared to look past your one flaw, then who is she to-"

"Shut up." All it took was one simple word to silence Kyu.

"I'm going after Audrey, Kyu. I have worked too hard and long to lose her, all because you didn't have the guts to tell me this sooner."

"Axel, where is this coming from?" It hurt, having to say these things to her. But my heart, as well as my brain, was decided on Audrey. I had to do whatever it took, and if that meant having to tell off Kyu, then I had to do it.

"It's coming from me, Kyu. The man you helped me to become. I know what I want, and that's Audrey. I don't care that she ran away from me, because I would have done the same. If she is the one, she will come back to me."

"And if she doesn't?"

"I'd rather not think about it."

"Axel, this isn't safe."

"I don't care. I don't care one fucking bit about anything besides finding Audrey. And nothing you say will stop me. So Kyu, I'm giving you one chance to say anything you want before I run out that fucking door to find Audrey. Speak now." My newfound authority stunned Kyu, because she didn't move or speak for a couple seconds. My hand was on the door, ready to open it. Within a couple of seconds of silence, I opened the door without saying a word. But before I could slam it behind me, I heard Kyu yell out to me

"Wait!" I got back inside, and saw her choke on her words. But after a couple brief hesitations, she blurted out

"Axel, I guess my job is done. There is no possible way Audrey isn't the one for you. You go find her, she needs you. By the time you get back, I probably won't be here. No need for me to stay, since I will probably just make things worse." I looked at her, not knowing what to say. Despite how much I may have resented her previous actions, this woman will still responsible for making my life worth living. I wanted to say something, but I just had no possible idea what would be appropriate. But then I heard her say

"It's been fun." Before closing the door, all I was able to respond was

"Yeah."

For two hours I drove. I drove around the parks, the streets, everywhere me and Audrey have been. I made stops at the mall, the modeling building, and even the community center where the janitor let her sleep. But I never saw any trace of her, and no one I spoke to had any idea either. I was constantly texting her, calling her, and sometimes just shouting her name. But none of it gave me any results.

I avoided the highways, since I doubt she would have walked onto one of those.

I didn't take any deep backroads, since she was scared of the woods.

Once two hours became three, I tried the highways and backroads. She was never there.

Three hours became four, I went back and checked everything again. Every turn I took, I was petrified of seeing a crimson girl's corpse rotting on the sidewalk. Every time I shouted her name, I felt colder not hearing a response. Every stop light, I sent her another text. Every stop into a building, I made another phone call. But no matter how much effort or times I tried, I got nothing back. My phone might as well have been a message in a bottle floating in the middle of the goddamn ocean.

Right as four hours became five, my car began to sputter. My car was running on fumes, and it was just about to give up. I pulled into a gas station just in time, and started filling it up with gas. As I waited for the gas, I kept staring at a blank phone. No messages or replies, it has been that way for hours now.

I set my phone's background to one of her selfies (that she had no problem stealing my phone to do). Every time I looked at my phone, I got another reminder of the woman I was looking for. Seeing her face made my smile, while also making me lose all hope. I didn't want the last time I looked at her to be through some fucking screen. But I just started accepting that it might just be that way.

"Why am I monster?" With my back leaned against my car, I started contemplating the whole situation out loud to myself, because I was the only one to talk to.

"It's all my fault she ran away. I could have tried to warn her better, but instead I just let it be. Hoping that my perfect little life wouldn't have thrown some curveball at me. But yet again, I guessed wrong. The one time I decided to be a man, I almost killed another. Right in front of the one I want to spend my life with." My fingers wrenched around my phone.

"But then, the woman that was teaching me to find love tells me she loves me. Geez, who saw that coming? And instead of playing it smart, I decide to be some noble hero and chase after the girl that wants nothing to fucking to do with me anymore. God…why am I such a fucking idiot!" I dropped my phone, and held my face in my palms. I dug my nails into my forehead, while clenching my teeth together like a vice. The one person I hated more than anyone right now was myself. But as I stood there struggling to not claw my own eyes out, I heard my phone's text tone go off.

I scattered to the floor, trying to pick up the phone as quick as I could. But my nervous fingers kept dropping the fucking thing. Eventually, my fingers were firm enough to grip it. When I looked at the newly cracked screen, I saw it was a text from Kyu.

'Axel, I spoke to Audrey. Meet her at the park bench where you first met. Good luck.' Without even considering to respond, I put the fuel nozzle back, and practically sped out of the gas station.

I'm pretty sure adrenaline and excitement are two different things, but no matter what, my body was practically overflowing. Whether it was a street or a highway, I was doing fifteen over the limit. I was buzzing in and out lanes, being accompanied by constant beeps. The way I was driving, you would think someone was chasing me.

I sped all the way to the park. What normally would have been an hour drive was only half an hour. I parked the car, and ran towards the bench. I felt this weird emotion in my body, almost like I was running to save Audrey's life. I was running, ready to take that bullet for her or ready to catch her from that fall. But as the distance began to close, and my heart was ready to explode, I started to slow down. In the distance, was the bench. With her back to me, was Audrey. I wanted to call her name, but I had no breath to spare. I walked my way over to her, feeling more and more relieved with every step. Every step was a confirmation that I didn't fail. Every step was a burst of happiness that I made it in time. Every step, brought me closer to her.

I tapped on her shoulder, and she turned around with a huge smile. Almost like nothing ever happened, leading up to this point. I was ready to speak every word in the dictionary for her, but instead she gestured me to sit next to her on the bench. Without a greeting, or any form of introduction, she simply said

"We need to talk."

 **A/N: Hi everyone, Dying-Revenge here. I'm sorry this chapter was a very short one, so I feel the need to explain a little. The next chapter will be the finale of this fan-fiction, so you can expect a great and normal length chapter hopefully within this week. The reason this chapter was so short was because I wanted to set the scene and suspense for the finale, but this short (but necessary) chapter didn't feel appropriate in the last or next chapter, so I that's why I put it here. Also, this is still a bad habit of mine. Every time I write a new story, I always have the ending planned out first. I knew what I wanted the ending to be for this story before I even began writing it. And as common in my other works, I get anxious and excited to finally get to the ending, so the one or two chapters before the finale tend to be a bit sloppy. But I can assure you, the final chapter of this story will receive one hundred and ten percent of my attention and effort. Coming into this, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I have never read a fan-fiction before, never mind writing one. But I took a chance with this story, and to my complete and utter surprise, my story was welcomed and well received by the community, which I am truly thankful for. Which is why I owe it to all of you to make sure this story finishes on the highest of notes, and meets all of your expectations. Thank you.**


	17. Chapter 17 (Finale)

"Axel, what you did…I didn't know you were capable of."

"Audrey, I didn't either. But when he put his hands on you, I completely lost it."

"Axel, I know what you did was for me, but that is what scares me. Are you gonna break a guy's arm every time one just happens to touch me?"

"No, Audrey. Of course not. I knew I had some kind of…demon inside of me. But now that I know what happens, that will help me control it. Hell, hopefully I don't even have to try. Hopefully all of this just blows away and we can just-"

"Axel, before you go saying 'we'…that is what I want to talk to you about."

"Audrey…"

"Calm down, calm down. I'm not breaking up with you, or at least not…yet."

"Audrey, whatever it is I have to do I will do it."

"Axel, please. Ever since I met you, my life has been nothing but bliss. You fed me, gave me a roof over my head, and were the first one to treat me like a human being. I don't want to scare you with a big word, but I think it's safe to say I kind of…love you." One second she is doubting my ability to keep my anger at bay, but now she is telling me she kind of loves me? Kyu never taught me anything like this before, but I knew I had to stop thinking of Audrey as some kind of goal. I was in this by myself, and Kyu was no longer here to help me. I had to be my own love fairy.

"And ever since I met you, you have been the purpose to live my life."

"Oh geez, I think you are taking this a little too far." She chuckled at me, so I chuckled nervously back. I did so nervously, because I wasn't sure if I was exaggerating or not.

"Here we are, telling each other we practically love each other and shit. But we still haven't gotten to the important stuff yet." This love stuff isn't the important part?

"So what is important then, Audrey?"

"A couple things." She shifted towards me. One of her legs were curled up onto the bench, while the other dangled in the air. She grabbed one of my hands, with one of her hands on my palm, the other on top of it.

"Axel, I need to know something." I could see her eyes struggle to look directly at me, but her stare never broke.

"Are you…willing to live the rest of your life with me?" I'm pretty sure my brain started trying to make some kind of alert, because one needed to go off right now.

"Audrey, I…is this like some kind of proposal?" I laughed, but I can tell by how determined she looked, this wasn't the time for the sense of sarcasm that glued me and Audrey together.

"Not the kind you're thinking of, but still kind of a proposal, yeah. You could think of it that way."

"So what is it?" Her stare truly began to struggle, and it finally broke. She tilted her head down, no longer able to look me in the eye. But even with the slight movements in her cheek, I could tell she was having a lot of trouble trying to say what she wanted to say. The words were inside, but they didn't want to come out. They were much more comfortable on her tongue, where she can just swallow them down and they never have to reach the surface.

I anxiously waited for what Audrey had to say. It had to have been a minute with her holding her head down. I felt bad, almost like watching someone with an injured leg try to walk. I thought maybe breaking the silence myself would help, but I knew I had to let Audrey speak.

"I'm…I'm gonna tell you a story Axel." With her head still down, she spoke. She spoke clear, and with confidence.

"When I was a little girl, my mother always told me. 'Audrey, one day in the future, there is going to a single man. He is gonna be the only man you will ever meet, that beats the rest. A lot of men will go to Hell and back for you. But they won't have the qualities you are looking for, and there is nothing wrong with that. But then, there will be men you think are perfect. They will pass the Audrey approval test with flying colors. But those same men wouldn't notice you if you were gum on the bottom of their shoe. But that is where the single man comes in. He will be the most handsome, the most intelligent, he will be everything you would want him to be. And that same man will go to Hell, kick the devil in the God damn balls, jump from there to the moon, and land back down on Earth with a rose in his hand for you. That man is the man you will spend the rest of your life with.'" After the (I'm guessing spot-on) quote from her mother, Audrey looked back up at me. Even if it's just for a few moments, seeing her red eyes is like seeing them for the first time in years.

"Growing up, I rebelled. I was a nasty little bitch my whole life, because I didn't want the wrong guy. I acted like a bitch as much as I could in the hopes that one day that single man landed right in front of me, hoping to give me that rose no matter who or what I was at the time. I've come across a lot of men, but none of them had a rose." She blinked slowly, just like a cat. That blink gave her a deep breath, which allowed her to grip my hand tighter and say her next few words.

"Axel, you passed my approval test. You gave me food, shelter, warmth, comfort, and attention. And based on what I saw, no matter how angry you get, you are more than willing to kick the devil in the balls for me. But Axel…" No, no 'buts'. Please no 'buts'.

"You never gave me a rose either." My body didn't react, and neither did I. I didn't feel warm, or cold. I didn't feel my heart beat blood, and I didn't feel her grip on my hand. I didn't want to react yet, because that last sentence sounded open. And I was just taking this time to pray to God, this meant she had more to say.

"Which is why…" Still nothing from my body. I had to hear some kind of confirmation before my heart could beat again.

"I need to know if you will give me that rose. And the only way to give me that rose, is to move to London with me." By the single awkward beat my heart did, I could tell even it was confused.

"London?"

"Yup. Axel, the modelling company is offering me a full time career. There is a fashion company in London that is dying to use me a model and as a representative. I would be provided with a home, benefits, and besides the money I get from my shoots, I even get some profits from magazines I'm featured in."

"Audrey, that is fantastic!" Her grip was loose enough that I was able to take back my hand so I could hug her with both arms. My heart began to beat again, and I could feel the happiness and excitement warm my body once more.

"Are you gonna take it?"

"I would be a fool not to Axel. But that is why I need to know if you will go with me." She gently pushed me off, but not in a rude way. I could tell she needed look at me for this.

"Axel, I'm moving to London no matter what. This opportunity is something I can't waste, this is what will make my life complete. I know this is heavy, but I need your response now. The company is expecting my call."

"Well I'm sorry, but can't this-"

"I'm flying out tomorrow night Axel."

"Oh God, Audrey I can't decide that fast."

"I think you can Axel. Instead of deciding if you want to move to London, decide something else. Axel, I want you to move with me to London, because I think I love you. I know 'think' is kind of a rude word to use right now but-" For the first time, I shushed her. I put one finger on her lips, because it was my time. She made up her mind, and now I had to make up my mind.

"Audrey, I know what you mean. I have to decide…if I love you." Audrey kept looking away, but she couldn't hide her blushing cheeks.

"And there is only one way for me to decide." I took my hand, and put a tiny grip on her chin. I moved her head up, angling it towards me. I then took both of my hands, and put them on her cheeks. With the slightest amount of pressure, I pushed her head forward. And while I pushed her closer, I moved my head in as well. With nothing to distract us, and nothing to interrupt us, I was finally going to confirm if this was the girl I would spend the rest of my life with.

She knew what I wanted to do, and she seemed happy about it. In between my hands, I could see her cute smile. I could feel some movement in her cheeks, almost like she wanted to say something else. But as our heads got closer, instead of speaking, she began to close her eyes. When I saw hers closing, I began to close mine as well. And now was the time for me relieve every moment with Audrey.

I was so ready and happy to see the first time I saw her on this bench. I couldn't wait to recall her snuggling up to me in bed. I was ready to laugh at all of the stupid jokes and snarky remarks. I died to see her in her dress, just to throw paper at her. I was standing there, almost like I was waiting for the movie to start. I started the countdown in that old black and white fashion. Three, and the line circled around. Two, I could hear the old beep. One, I felt her breath on my lips, we were so close. The line went around, and the screen in my head went black. The movie was about to begin…

But nothing happened.

I opened my eyes, and pulled away my head. Audrey opened her eyes after she realized our lips didn't share any contact.

"Axel? What's wrong, what happened?"

"I…I…" I knew damn well what happened. But how do I tell this girl…she wasn't the one for me? Fuck, not even I wanted to come to grips with it.

"Axel, I thought that…"

"Audrey…I think…I…" My mind was a total panic. I just found out this girl I spent so much time with wasn't my soul mate, and now I had to tell her that. Now that also meant I didn't find my fucking soul mate! I was ready to just run away, but I could feel Audrey's hands on my shoulders.

"Look at me Axel."

"Audrey… I'm so sorry…I don't know why I…"

"Simple. I'm not the one for you Axel, and that is no one's fault."

"But I was so sure that…"

"Axel, look at it this way. Now it's gonna be a lot easier to leave to London." She started to laugh, and so did I. Not because I didn't want to be awkward, it was just genuinely funny.

"And I mean, hey. So we weren't meant to get married and have kids, doesn't mean we can't talk to each other. How about I call you every Sunday? Something along those lines?"

"Audrey, I'm the one that said we can't be together, and yet you are taking this a shit ton better than me."

"Well I mean, I didn't know either. Plus you also have to consider the fact that I am about to become a celebrity, so there isn't a lot of things right now that can bring me down." There is something hilarious about optimistic sarcasm than regular pessimistic sarcasm.

"Axel, I say you get back in the car and head home. A limo is coming to pick me up, and I don't want to overdose you with envy."

"All it takes is a little advantage and you rub it in like mud, don't you?"

"Fuck yeah, boy!" We laughed, and stood up together. She was the one that came to me for a deep hug.

"Axel, you can stop pretending to laugh."

"But I'm not-"

"Bullshit, I know you are." Yeah…yeah I was.

"I'm sorry…I just can't believe that-"

"Shh shh shh. It's alright." Even though I towered over her, she was able to reach up and began to stroke my hair.

"Axel, I bet you probably think since I wasn't meant for you, you probably have no one right?" Instead of a verbal response, I just mumbled.

"Well, from a girl's perspective, I think you already met her."

"Audrey, I don't get it."

"It's very simple. Someone out their cares about you more than they care about themselves. And as of right now, only one person fits that category." She let go of me, so she can deliver her final message.

"Go home Axel. She's waiting for you."

Even with my eyes wide open, I saw her. I saw the one Audrey was talking about. My heart, my brain, even my gallbladder was telling to get in the car and drive home as fast as I could. I squeezed Audrey one last time, before telling her goodbye.

"Audrey, I can't thank you enough for all of the awesome times you gave me. I wish you luck, okay?"

"Ditto. I'll text you later okay? I'll let you know when my limo is coming to pick up my stuff. Now go boy! Go!" I turned around and dashed towards my car. But I still felt the need to have the last word so with one leap, I turned around in the air and shouted

"Fuck your limo!" I turned around and began to run again, but then I could hear a distant

"I think I will!" Without stopping to chuckle at that remark, I continued dashing towards the car.

I was on the highway, driving as reckless as I was before. I had enough adrenaline in me to jumpstart a tank, but I was still worried I might have been too late. I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye, never mind confess my love. I wasn't sure if she would even let me speak if I caught her in time. The last thing I did to her was be a giant dick, so now all I had in my head was energy, guilt, and regret. Bad combo when driving, let me tell you.

On the way to the park, the hour drive was half an hour. On the way back, the hour drive was twenty five minutes. Either there weren't any cops on this highway, or they were already chasing me but I didn't have enough attention to spare to notice the pretty red and blues. But as soon as the highway was done, I started driving on two wheels. Every turn my tires screeched, every stop sign was just a decoration, and every street light was as green as mint. All the way to my house was a non-stop zig-zag of dangerous maneuvers and constant speed. When everything is said and done, whether it works out or not, I'm gonna give the game Snake another go.

I pulled into my driveway, completely lopsided. I didn't grab the key out of the ignition, or even close the door (but I hoped to God I at least put it in park). I ran my way to the door, ready to tackle it down if need be. I had a bunch of ideas on the way home to tell if she was still here or not. Lights on in the windows, door was unlocked, etc. But considering I didn't bother to look at any windows, this door was about to seal my fate. If it was open, good for me. If it wasn't, I probably wouldn't wake up until next week. But with one final leap to the door, I reached out my hand to grab the knob. With both feet still in the air, I turned the knob quickly, and the door opened, launching me inside. With the carpet acting as brakes, I stopped running and heeled over to catch a massive amount of breath. I wanted to yell and I wanted to speak, but my brain was smartly making my body do other things first. Those others things making sure my organs still function. But as I could feel the air refilling my lungs, I heard something. I heard something I really wanted to hear.

"Axel?" I was still facing the ground, bent over catching my breath. But I could hear her scramble down the stairs.

"Axel, oh my God are you okay? Where's Audrey?" At this point, I had enough breath saved up. But also hearing her voice made me feel a lot better too.

"She's in her limo. She's moving to London without me."

"Without you!? But she told me she was gonna ask you!" I looked up, and I saw Kyu. She had some jeans on, some bummy T-shirt, and her wings were fully expanded behind her back.

"She did. And I said no."

"No? Axel, you said…'no'? How the fuck can you say no?" Despite how angry her voice was, everything about her posture said sad.

"Because she wasn't the one, Kyu." I walked over to get closer to her. She didn't retreat.

"H-How could you tell?"

"I didn't relive our memories."

"Didn't relive the memories? You mean you-" With a strong nod of my head, I said

"Yup."

"Oh, fuck. But…then why are you here?" I reached out to touch her.

"Because, Kyu I-" But as I reached out, she backed away.

"No. No no no…" She kept backing away, all the way to the wall.

"Axel, please don't do this."

"Kyu…do what?" She reached out her arm with an open palm.

"I know what this is Axel, I know what you are about to do! I'm sorry I confused you earlier with what I said, but please…stop!" I dropped to my knees. I was ready to beg, I couldn't take any of this anymore. First I think I found love, but then a different girl tells me she loves me. But then I find out the girl I thought I loved wasn't the one for me, so now the one that told me she loved me won't give me any chance!

"Kyu, please listen to me."

"No, Axel. I can't listen, I can't stay here anymore. I'm just gonna make things worse, please!"

"Let me apologize."

"What? Apologize?"

"Yes. Kyu, I'm sorry." Her knees buckled, the only thing keeping her standing was her back against the wall. As she spoke more, her tears fell down her cheeks.

"You can't be sorry…you can't…" I could see her want to wipe her face, but her limbs refused her will.

"Yes I can be Kyu, because I am."

"Axel…nothing was your fault…stop…" Finally, her knees gave way. She slid down the wall, falling all the way to the floor.

"Kyu, nothing was your fault either." Instead of responding, she just began to wail. Every verbal cry was followed by a wave of tears.

"You have saved my life, you did everything in your power to make sure I was happy." Every few words, I crawled a little closer on my knees. I can see Kyu try to crawl back with my movements, but the wall wouldn't let her get away.

"Everything you did, you did for me. Even if that meant giving me to Audrey."

"Axel…you weren't mine to give away…I just wanted you to be happy…and I thought Audrey made you happy…" The tears stung her eyes, I could just tell. Her lungs struggled to properly pump air, her body was completely overreacting. But no matter how much pain she was experiencing, she still kept looking at me. No matter the pool forming on her eyes, she looked right at me.

"She did, but all of that was still because of you. Every time I ever felt happy, it was because of you Kyu." I was almost within reach of her.

"I can't make you happy Axel…I can't…"

"Kyu. You have already made me happy, you know that. Now all I want to do is make you happy." I reached out to her, and was able to place one of my hands on her ankle. That is when she wrapped her face in her elbows, hiding her face from me. But her cries didn't cease.

"Kyu. Kyu." Between her constant cries, I heard her mumble

"What…"

"I want to make you happy. So do you want to make me happy?" She lifted her face from her elbows, but ever so slightly. The tears calmed down, but were still present. With a sniffle, she said

"Yes…" I shuffled my way closer and closer to her. I leaned over her, propping my arm over to her other side. I was leaning over her lap, so I could be face to face with her. After a few more sniffles, I asked her

"Isn't that what love is?" There was a couple moments of pure silence. But once her eyes tightened up again, I lifted my hand and wiped away any new tears with my thumb. All it took was a couple waves of my thumb, and she looked back at me with wide eyes.

"Axel…do you…love me?" In my head, I had a couple of things I could have said. But I didn't want to say anything, as much as I wanted to bring my face closer to hers. As I started to close my eyes, I could see her closing hers as well.

The black of closed eyes was something all too familiar to me. Sleeping alone, and dreamless nights. But this, wasn't one of those blacks. As my eyes were closed, I was still able to see. I saw Kyu, the first day we met. The weird outfit, the hairstyle, and that constant expression of being annoyed. I saw the Panini store, and her banging at my window. I saw her, comforting me after my thoughts of suicide. I saw her crying on the couch, confiding everything in me. I saw her in her different outfits, her different emotions, all I saw was her. Almost all of the memories, from the simple ones to the bad ones came to me in that black. But then I saw things, I never saw before. I saw her, on the phone. She was talking to Audrey, convincing her to give me one last chance. After she hang up the phone, she collapsed on the floor. But then my vision flashed and whirred, almost like it was rewinding. I saw me in my bedroom, going to sleep. I heard Audrey's voice, and I recognized the words. It was the first night I ever met Audrey, and this was when she slept next to me. But…it wasn't Audrey. I saw Kyu climbing into the bed with me. That was the night, when I first thought I felt a glimpse of what love was. It was her I was holding, it was her skin I felt on mine. The memory began to fade away back into the black.

It all became clear.

Everything was coming together, and falling into place.

The memories ceased, because more were about to be created.

With only a few moments of the black, I felt Kyu's kiss, as she felt mine.

We didn't move, and we didn't speak. My mind was able to fill the black I saw with pure emotion and happiness. My mind felt like it was full of fireworks, as my heart felt like it was full of pure rock and roll. I didn't even feel the world around me, all I felt was Kyu against me. And that was I all I wanted to feel.

When we separated, our lips made a quick audible sound, which gave us the que to slowly open our eyes. With nothing but smiles on our faces, we didn't do anything else. But after a few seconds, I could tell we both felt the same urge in our bodies. Before we continued, I confirmed with Kyu

"Yes. I love you Kyu."

"I love you too Axel." With a quick chuckle, we dived into another deeper kiss. She wrapped her arms around my head, pushing me in closer to her. I always thought there would be some kind of weird science on how to properly kiss someone, but it was amazing how natural it felt. Our lips were moving in different ways, and every now and then I could feel Kyu's tongue tease me. Man, it sounds a lot dirtier when you put it into words…

While we continued to kiss on the floor against the wall, I felt something weird tickling my noise. It felt like some kind of powder, almost like snow. I opened my eyes, and my vision was fluttered with glowing gold pixels, falling graciously to the ground. I followed the source of the golden powder, and it led me to Kyu's wings. They were slowly melting away, turning into this dust.

"Kyu, your wings!"

"Don't worry Axel." She used her hand to bring my attention back to her.

"I don't need my wings anymore, because no longer do I have to fly." What she said was slightly cryptic, and I didn't want to make a jackass assumption.

"So…" She giggled.

"This is what happens when fairies fall in love. This means I'm staying here with you now, Axel." She gave me a quick kiss, before giving me another giggle.

"I don't need wings, if I don't have to fly. I love you Axel." This time, I kissed her. I gave her a very manly and handsome grin.

"I love you Kyu." We both smiled at each other, so happy we knew we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.

"I like the sound of that." She said. And then, with her wings dissolved away, we continued to kiss each other. And for every second we were together, we fell more and more in love.

Welp, that is where the camera begins to pan away. Looking back on everything now, it's kind of weird to think how crazy everything was. There I was, just some loser at his computer where something that I assumed wasn't real clocked me in the head and told me to get a girlfriend. I thought about suicide, picked up a homeless girl, broke a guy's arm, and fell in love with a pink haired fairy. Yeah, how many times can you say that happened to you?

I thought life itself was a journey. School, friends, work, we all had to go venture through it without a map to guide us. Everything is hard enough as it is, but then you throw the human emotion of love in the mix, and holy fuck does that send you through the spin cycle. Never mind not having a map, you don't even have the basic clue. But like the saying goes, nothing venture and nothing gained. Sometimes you gotta go by instinct and take a left instead every once in a while. Every once in a while you are gonna have one of those days, where left seems like a good idea.

What, are you questioning me? What, just because my 'left turn' was a love fairy punching me in the head, I can't have one of those days? Well you're wrong, because that's exactly what it was. It was One Of Those Days.

 **Author's Note:**

 **This concludes my first fan-fiction. I would like to thank everybody for joining me on this adventure, reading my story, and ofcourse leaving feedback. With this project done, that means I can start another one for you all to enjoy. I have a few ideas already planned out, some include other HuniePop characters. Let me know what you might want to see in the future, whether it be a certain character, certain game, movie, etc, or at some point you may want an update on Axel and Kyu. Nothing is taboo, so please feel free to recommend anything you like.**

 **Thank you.**


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